


The Long Walk Home

by Spoon888



Category: The Transformers (Cartoon Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: Angst, Canon-Typical Violence, Flashbacks, Huddling For Warmth, Injury, M/M, Nightmares, PTSD, Slow Burn, Sticky, The Cross Country Hiking Trip Only An Idiot Like Me Would Write
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-30
Updated: 2018-11-28
Packaged: 2019-07-04 15:43:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 38,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15844365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spoon888/pseuds/Spoon888
Summary: Megatron and Starscream are thought dead and left behind on a distant battlefield. With Starscream's wings damaged and comm systems down, they've no choice but to make their way back on foot. From east to west coast.Even with legs as long as theirs, it's going to take a while.





	1. Chapter 1

Starscream reached an altitude of twenty thousand feet, and still, he climbed.

Skyfire was behind him, struggling against the storm. He couldn't climb as fast. Too much weight. All their equipment. Starscream regretted being such a brat now. He should have carried some. Should have offered...

The clouds ahead seemed endless, but he knew they weren't. There was clear sky above them, somewhere, he just needed to reach it. Needed to lead Skyfire to safety.

They'd laugh about this later. Afterwards, safe and warm and far from this hellish organic cesspool.

"- _ream- see you_!" his comm crackled with Skyfire's voice.

He wasn't sure if it was his signal failing, or his partners. He set off a flare, hoping the shuttle could follow it through the storm. Thirty thousand feet now. The cloud was thinning.

"Almost there!" He yelled into his comm, ascending vertically now, rolling when he spied the end to thick dark snow clouds. The comm crackled with static.

He fired off another flare, then a second for good measure, but ahead he could see _stars_. The sky was drenched in them. He had made it. _They_ had made it.

"Yes!" He cried, laughing with the rush of relief, rolling out of flight mode and into bipedal just so he could smile. They'd made it.

He turned to celebrate with his partner.

But the sky behind him was empty.

And he was alone.

 

And then he was awake.

A sharp pain shot through his wings and stabbed him in the back, dragging him from his nightmare and throwing him into a reality no better. He was fighting for his bearings in utter darkness as he tried to rise, panicked and confused. His wings held him back. Something had pinned them.

Covered, trapped from all sides, he realised there was a building on top of him. What looked like it anyway. Bricks and wood, disconnected steel pipes gushing water. He gasped and shifted, trying to assess how screwed he was, but every minute movement put more pressure on his wings.

He fought through the pain, denta gritted, and shoved at the oak beam lying across his chest-

-Not realising it had been the only support for the two tonnes of rubble waiting to drop on his wings.

He screamed, vocaliser sharp and hoarse. His wings crumpled under the weight, crushed like trash in a compactor. Panting in the aftermath, he swore and hissed. His vision blurred, like the pain was so overwhelming his frame couldn't remember how to function. His fuel pump accelerated. He couldn't breathe. There was no air- 

And then the darkness receded. Salvation came. Someone was calling his name.

Through watery optics he watched as the rubble was lifted away and sunlight streamed down.

"Yes, I thought it was you." Megatron said.

Starscream moaned despairingly at the face peering down at him, haloed in light. The angelic-look did not suit Megatron's ugly visage.

"I'm stuck!" He called, in case Megatron hadn't already noticed. "Get me _out_ of here!"

Megatron huffed and reached down through the rubble for him. Starscream took his wrist and Megatron took his weight. But his wings were still trapped, and the hinges pulled almost to breaking point,

"Ah-stop! _Stop_ , idiot! My wings!"

Megatron let ago, frowning. He hummed wordlessly, then disappeared with no explanation. Leaving him.

"Megatron!?" Starscream called after him, spark throbbing as panic rose again. "Don't _leave_ me!"

"I'm right here," Megatron's impatient voice called back from somewhere above. The sound of shifting rubble registered in Starscream's audials. "Stop squirming. Before you're crushed."

Starscream refrained from pointing out at he was _already_ crushed and waited in silence, listening to Megatron lift and throw. Bricks clacked, wood groaned. Every so often dust would sprinkle down onto his frame. Every time he flinched.

"Are you still alive?" Megatron's voice drifted down to him.

"Yes!" Starscream snapped, mildly offended. He was only stuck. If he could leave his wings behind he would have saved himself by now.

"Almost there." Megatron said, huffing as he lifted something heavy.

 _Almost there_. Starscream thought of Skyfire, getting lost in that blizzard. Almost there hadn't been good enough for him...

"Just hurry up!" He snapped, and wriggled, and shouldn't have. Something sharp dropped down and pierced his wing armour.

"Gaargh!" wanted to punch something. Preferably Megatron.

"Here," he heard Megatron, and then felt movement on his wing. Something heavy was lifted off, but somehow, that made it hurt more.

He grit his denta and rode it out, breathing sharply as sensors pinged him with error after error. He heard Megatron make a noise of concern. He closed his optics. He didn't want to look. Didn't want to see the mangled mess his wings had become.

Two servos slipped under his arms without warning and began to lift him. He hissed, struggled. "I'm perfectly- I can stand under my own power!"

Megatron let go of him with an exasperated shove, and Starscream dropped onto his aft on top of the rubble he'd just been trapped under.

His pain was forgotten momentarily as he took in the devastation of the area. It was a city apartment building he'd been trapped under, but the street was eerily quiet. A few emergency vehicles had been left on the street, but they were abandoned, a fire hose had been left to twist and spray unattended.

"Where is everyone?"

"Gone." Megatron said unhelpfully. Starscream glared.

"The human's ran screaming when I came to, there-" Megatron pointed to another section of the collapsed building, and now that Starscream looked, his leader was also covered in dust and dirt. He'd been trapped too. "And I cannot hail Soundwave."

Starscream tried to as well, but his comm was down. Just static.

He hated the noise. He switched it off quickly.

"Great." He muttered.

"Your wings." Megatron drew attention to them again, and Starscream had almost forgotten the excruciating pain he was in. "They'll need to come off."

Starscream's optics flared. He scooted away in alarm, knocking bricks and glass. "They _what_?!"

"They're dead weight." Megatron said simply, moving towards him. "And they'll slow you down-"

"No, _no_!" Starscream held his servos out. "Get away from me! You're not taking my wings, I need them!"

"To fly." Megatron agreed. "But they're not going to let you do any flying for a long time."

Starscream didn't want to look. He really didn't.

"Don't touch them-"

"Starscream."

"-Don't you _dare_ touch them!"

"Starscream you fool, they're hanging-"

Starscream clasped his servos over his audials, "No!"

Megatron began advancing again, an angry determined expression in his face. Starscream scrambled and tripped in the rubble. "No, _no_ Megatron please-!"

"I am not going to suffer your endless complaints that they hurt." Megatron snapped, bending over him. Starscream tried to slap him away. "Roll over. When they're removed, the pain sensors will deactivate-"

Starscream planted a pede on his chest and tried to push him back. "Get away!"

"Starscream!"

"I'll be dead before I let you take my wings!" Starscream yelled, kicking and squirming despite his injuries. "You hear me!? _Dead_!"

 

* * *

 

  
Fifteen minutes later Starscream sniffed miserably as he watched Megatron tuck two ruined wings under his arm.

"There." He said, dusting his servos off, satisfied with a job well done.

Wings gone and sensors offline, Starscream was able to focus on the less serious injuries plaguing him- like the dent in his back from where Megatron's knee had just pinned him down. He wiped his olfactory with the back of his servo and glared at him.

"I hate you."

"Good," Megatron wasn't repentant. He shifted his grip on the wings and held them out, considering. Starscream watched him put them away in his subspace. He was thankful for that at least. They barely looked like his wings now...

"Are you injured elsewhere?" Megatron continued practically.

"Why? So you can dismember me again? What if I had a processor ache? Huh? Are you going to rip my head off next?!"

"It would certainly shut you up," Megatron rolled his optics. "Come now. Up."

Starscream didn't want to get up. He wanted to sit here and sulk until the humans came back or the Autobots found them. Maybe they could put him out of his misery.

He didn't have a choice in the matter. Megatron nudged him with a knee, then bent to take his wrist. Starscream slapped him off and stood under his own power, unbalanced by uneven footing and missing limbs.

"For Primus's-!" he swayed and had to catch himself against Megatron before he fell flat in his face. How did grounders have any sense of balance without wings?

Megatron seized the opportunity to manhandle him anyway, dragging him down from the hazardous rubble. Starscream clung to his wrist, knowing if the mountain of glass and brick shifted it could drag him under again. If that happened, he was taking fragging Megatron with him.

By the time they'd reached solid smooth tarmac they could hear sirens in the distance. The curtains of the neighbouring buildings were beginning to twitch. Humans. Urgh.

"We need to leave." Megatron said with a sense of urgency.

Starscream snorted and ambled after him at a far more sedate pace, frame aching, "Don't tell me the _mighty_ Megatron is running from the squishies now?"

"Only when those 'squishies' are capable of summoning Prime and his rabble." Megatron threw back, ducking into an alleyway he almost couldn't fit into, out of sight. "Unless you're happy to fight them for me?"

Starscream was about to ask why Megatron couldn't fight his own battles, when he noticed his inconspicuously empty right arm.

"Where's your fusion cannon?" He snapped, shuffling after him a little more hastily now.

Megatron's huge shoulders lifted in a shrug. He stuck his helm out of the alley, looking both ways and waving him closer, "Quickly."

Starscream felt more than a little ridiculous, sneaking between tall buildings like this with Megatron. Boston- he believed it was called- was a densely populated city, and the idea that they could sneak out of it unseen by the humans was a little overambitious really. Humans were stupid, but they weren't blind.

"Megatron," he pulled him back for he made to rush behind another building. "This is taking too long."

"What do you expect me to do?" Megatron snapped, shrugging off his touch. "Neither of us are in any condition to fight. Neither of us have a way of summoning reinforcements."

"We just run, idiot," Starscream hissed back, finding it hard to take Megatron seriously when they were crouched in a dank little gap between buildings that smelt more than a little suspect. "Yes the humans will see us but by the time they're organised themselves we'll be long gone."

"On foot?" Megatron glared. "You seem to have forgotten you can't fly."

 **"I know I can't** -!" Starscream realised he was shouting and stopped. "Fine. Do as you please. You always do. I'll be getting myself out of his oversized petri dish alive!"

"Starscream."

Starscream didn't care if he followed or not, he stepped out onto the street in front of cars and all chaos in the form of horns and yelling broke out. Oh, how he _hated_ automobiles.

"Get outta the street, ya freak!" Some specimen had the nerve to lean out of a window and shake their fist at him.

Sneering, Starscream kicked the car. It flipped over onto it's top, wheels in the air. Pathetic.

That's when the screaming broke out. Starscream let himself smile. That was a far more appropriate reaction to seeing a Decepticon warrior.

A servo landed on his shoulder, and Starscream realised with growing fury that the screaming was because Megatron had followed him out. He didn't have time to dwell on what was so fearsome about Megatron and so... _not_ about him, because an arm was around his waist and dragging him away from the huge traffic jam he had effortlessly caused.

"Move!" Was snarled in his audial. The sirens were back, and yes, Starscream supposed it was probably a good idea to get in gear.

 

* * *

 

  
Two hours later found them somewhere outside of the city, in an industrial park. It was abandoned if the rust and derelict buildings were any indication.

Tired from running on thrusters that weren't exactly designed for cross country, Starscream cleared dirt and crisp leaves away from the top of a parked truck and took a seat on it's trailer. It groaned under his weight but didn't collapse. He crossed his legs and watched Megatron limp in front of him, locking his armour down against the chill of winter.

Ridiculous planet and it's seasons.

"What do we do now?"

Megatron paused, looking up at the sky. Starscream followed his gaze and frowned at the thick cloud overhead.

"I can't fly." He reminded Megatron, perhaps unnecessarily. Which meant any travelling would have to be done on foot because Megatron's alt mode was utterly useless and immobile. "How far are we from base?"

It took Megatron a while to answer. Which meant it wasn't good.

"....about three thousand miles."

Starscream wasn't initially worried. That was, what, less than three hours flight time for him?

Or six weeks walking.

He dropped his helm into his servos. "We're going to rust out here."

"We're not." Megatron sounded closer. The trailer dipped suddenly, and Starscream lifted his head to find he had company. "These aren't the badlands. This planet's terrain is easy to navigate. So long as he avoid Autobots, we'll face little problems walking back."

A cold wind blew in. Starscream shivered, thinking of thick snow clouds and an unanswered comm.

"Only a fool would underestimate this planet," he growled, rising from the trailer.

Megatron tilted his helm questioningly, but Starscream didn't feel the need to explain himself. It would be dark soon anyway, and they needed a shelter. They needed fuel. He had lost a lot when his wings-

"Lets go." He muttered.

 

* * *

 

  
It was dark, late into the night when they finally found cover away from human habitation in a park, with open fields and climbing trails, but tall forested areas. The trees had lost their leaves in the cold, but it was past midnight and good enough.

Starscream ignored the fatigue brought on by the emptiness of his tanks and sunk down onto a large boulder. Megatron dropped to the filthy ground with a thunk.

"Go somewhere else." He snapped, not wanting to have to listen to Megatron snore all night on top of everything else.

Megatron threw him a scathing look and leant back against a strong, thick tree, long legs stretched out in front of him. There was oil and grease on the inside of his knee, leaking out from beneath the armour. Probably what had been causing his limp.

Starscream didn't have wings though, so he hardly sympathised.

Since Megatron wasn't going to move, he shuffled to the other side of his boulder, lying across it on his front. His back was still sensitive, unused to the contact or texture of something other than his wings. He felt vulnerable without them. Unprotected.

Through the tree canopy he could see the stars. He remembered them being brighter, more vivid, on his last trip to this planet. Light pollution likely, from the humans. He sneered and offlined his optics, tucking limbs in and closing his vents, keeping warm air in.

The night was long and the temperature continued to drop. Starscream remembered the chill that went down his back from falling snow, shielding his optics from it when it blew from all directions. He couldn't see for all the white. He was blind, frozen, digging through it with stiff digits. Was Skyfire buried beneath it already?

The wind blew hot and suddenly he was awake with a shout, arms thrown out. His fist knocked armour and a clang rang out. Megatron grunted.

Starscream blinked away his panic and looked up into Megatron's narrowed gaze.

"...Get off my rock!" He snapped.

"You were shivering." Megatron said simply. Which meant he'd been watching him. "And calling out."

"I was not." He turned onto his side petulantly.

Armour scrapped against rock as Megatron began to settle down. Starscream's mouth fell open at the audacity of him. "I said, get-"

"You'd rather waste more fuel freezing?" Megatron rumbled in the darkness. "I'm hardly asking for us to huddle together. Just lay still."

Starscream pressed his mouth together and shut up. No. He'd rather not freeze, and Megatron's frame was gushing warmth. He laid his helm down on his arms, facing away from Megatron.

"Just don't touch me."

Megatron snorted.

Starscream offlined his optics again. It was still cold, the wind still blew, but the dream didn't return.

And Megatron's snoring made him too angry to think of much else anyway.

 


	2. Chapter 2

The long winter night stretched into morning hours. Starscream didn't feel inclined to move out of his tightly curled ball of warmth, not even when Megatron rose and let the crisp chill get to his back. He muttered something unsavoury, knowing he'd be prodded awake as soon as Megatron felt like irritating him, and decided to make the most of the recharge he could still get.

His shoulder was shook, "Starscream."

He hummed, "Mmm."

"Starscream, get up."

He opened his optics, squinting at the sudden brightness. His sight myopic and blurry, it took him a moment to realise it was so bright because he'd slept so later into the day. 

The events of the day before had taken it out of him, clearly. 

Megatron was stood over him. There was an oil drum under his arm. Organic fuel. Yuck.

Quick explained where he'd been.

"Here." Megatron dumped it with a thunk and it's contents sloshed. Starscream felt sick and he hadn't even tasted it yet.

"You first." He said cautiously.

Megatron seemed exasperated but unwilling to fight. He twisted the top off and lifted it to his mouth. Starscream watched him chug it down, wincing in sympathy. It didn't look like he was savouring it.

Finished, Megatron wiped his mouth with the back of his servo. Wordlessly, he handed it over.

"Is it bad?"

Megatron didn't say anything. Wise decision.

Starscream whispered a prayer and rather stupidly, gave it a sniff.

Somehow both chemical _and_ organic, he grimaced at the stench of petrol. It wasn't indigestible, but it was full of impurities. It would play havoc on their systems. Starscream checked his fuel reserves and knew he had no choice.

He drank. It burned his throat and he choked. Half of it tried to come out his nose.

"Urgh!"

"Stop fussing." Megatron slapped his back, "Just drink it."

Starscream shuddered and pinched his olfactory, and tried again.

Ten minutes and a lot of eye rolling from Megatron later, and the drum was empty. Starscream threw it away from himself resentfully. The taste was stuck in the back of his throat and he had no way of washing it away.

"Where did you find that?"

"Stole it." Megatron said simply, stretching his bad leg out in front of him.

"Obviously," Starscream muttered, "Shouldn't we get more? For the trip?"

"There will be other opportunities," Megatron straightened, and Starscream didn't miss his wince. "but yes, I have more in my subspace."

Lovely, another few days worth of disgusting swill to keep them going.

 

* * *

 

"They think we're dead, don't they?"

Megatron looked back at him. They were in the middle of an empty field of frost covered mud, walking single file- probably to minimise the chances of conversation. Primus forbid they talk about the weather.

Starscream didn't care if Megatron wanted to ignore his presence though, he was bored.

"Possibly." Megatron said. He didn't seem troubled at the thought.

"Maybe we should have stayed." Starscream mused aloud. "They would have come back for our protoforms. Wouldn't they?"

Megatron didn't answer.

"They wouldn't have just left us to rust under there."

"They did."

Starscream pouted, "They-"

"-left us." Megatron stopped suddenly. Starscream almost walked into his back. "As they should have."

It was the Decepticon way. Starscream didn't argue.

He did wonder if they were being mourned. Megatron would be, surely. But would he? And what if Megatron hadn't pulled him out of the rubble? Would he still be there now? Would the humans have heard him? Would they have dug him out?

How long had Skyfire waited for him when he had crashed and fallen under the ice? For hours, days? How long did it take for the cold to set in? How long was it before he realised no one was coming?

"Starscream."

He blinked and realised he'd stopped. Megatron was some way away from him, staring with that unreadably stoic look on his face.

Starscream dropped him helm and rushed to catch up.

 

* * *

 

It grew dark quickly. Typical of geography so far from the equator.

Starscream decided it was a good thing. Humans illuminated everything but that just made it simpler to avoid them; avoid their lights. He and Megatron saw in other ways. They didn't need the light, and darkness made for greater stealth.

His thrusters ached, and Megatron too, was beginning to slow. Having fought at his side for many millennia, Starscream knew it took a lot to wear him down. His leg, Starscream noticed, was still leaking oil.

"Think you can hop three thousand miles?" He asked snidely.

Megatron followed his gaze down and snorted. "It's fine."

"It's slowing you down."

" _You_ are slowing me down." Megatron threw back venomously.

Starscream decided not to push him. A wounded beast was quick to lash out.

 

* * *

 

They found an empty factory. Broken windows, dusty floors; but it was out of the wind. Starscream found a corner far from the whistling windows and watched Megatron hobble around the perimeter, double checking the entrances, sniffing around out back, grumbling to himself.

"What?" Starscream snapped, unable to sleep with his clanking about.

"Nothing." Megatron huffed back, bending over human trinkets. "Go to recharge."

Starscream resented being set a bedtime like an unruly youngling. Just to rebel, he pushed up from the floor, wincing at the scrape of wall against his bare back, and wandered over. Megatron growled wordlessly and ignored him, poking about amongst dusty, barren shelves.

"What are you looking for?"

"Tools."

Starscream glanced at his leg, barely capable of summoning the stress of will not to say _'I told you so.'_

He was magnanimous in his pity though. He bent, reaching for the injury, "Let me-"

"I can take care of it." Megatron stepped away. Again, Starscream spied his pinched expression. He glared, jaw set.

"I'm not carrying you when you keel over."

"I'm not asking you to." Megatron's gaze softened with a sigh, "Go to recharge."

"You took my wings." Starscream reminded him, sarcastically grateful. "Let me return the favour."

Megatron considered his leg.

"It will keep." He dismissed.

His stubbornness was going to be the end of him, Starscream thought, stomping back to his corner of the warehouse. Hopefully it wouldn't take him down with the old fool.

 

* * *

 

The days that passed were uneventful. They walked, they recharged, they choked back their vile fuel, and for the most part, attempted to ignore one another. Megatron continued to limp, and Starscream continue to roll his optics.

Staying out of sight was easier than Starscream had expected. They avoided the cities, the towns, keeping off road, crossing through woodland and grassland. It was pit on his thrusters and he wasted hours he should have spent recharging prising twigs and mud out of his heels in the evenings.

Not that it was easy to recharge. Warehouses and factories were best for staying out of the cold, but weren't always conspicuous. They spent nights under bridges, the underpass, or beneath the stars, and it was always so cold.

It was some days later, walking parallel to a winding country road, that Starscream was too busy frowning at Megatron's increasingly lopsided gaunt he wasn't paying enough attention to where he was walking.

 _Snap_.

"Argh!" Starscream hopped on one leg when something _bit_ the end of the his pede. He kicked out, his panicked flailing sending tree branches flying, but it wouldn't let go.

"Starscream?!"

Trees crunched and snapped as Megatron rushed back toward him, alert and ready for a fight.

"Get it off. Get. It. _Off_!" Starscream shrieked, wriggling his foot.

Megatron looked. There was some sort of metal jaw clamped around his foot. It's teeth had sunk between the intricate seams of his toe pedes and it _hurt_.

"What is this?" Megatron demanded, grabbing his ankle and lifting, almost overbalancing him.

Starscream gripped a tree and hissed. "I don't care what it is, get it off!"

It was small, but painful, and removing it was tricky with his squirming and Megatron's heavy-handedness. Megatron began to prise it open, but lost grip. It crunched down again.

Starscream howled.

"Alright- _alright_!" Megatron began to sound flustered now. "Sit down, you idiot, and stop screaming."

Cringing, Starscream dropped to the forest floor, angling his leg up so Megatron could grip the device with both servos and yank it open. Once it was free, he cast it a disdainful look and tossed it into the undergrowth.

"Who would leave something like that lying around!?" Starscream complained, pulling himself upright and wincing when he put pressure on his pede. Looked like Megatron wasn't going to be the only one limping from here on out.

Megatron shrugged, looking around at the ground worrisomely. It was covered with leaves and twigs. Who knew what else was hidden under there.

"Perhaps we should use the trail."

"And be seen?" Starscream snorted, "No. I'd rather step on a hundred traps than risk some organic specimen calling Autobots on us in this state. As if I haven't been humiliated enough..."

Megatron was looking at his pede worrisomely. It wasn't damaged too badly. Some small puncture wounds where energon was seeping out, but nothing his self repair wouldn't get to in a day or two. Starscream grit his denta and put his weight on it, just to show Megatron how fine it was, and get him to wipe that concern from his face. It didn't suit him.

Besides, it was no worse than _his_ leg.

"Stay behind me." Megatron conceded, "I'll clear the way."

How typical of humans, Starscream thought, stepping lightly as he followed. As if the wilderness wasn't dangerous enough, they have to go around booby trapping it?

 

* * *

 

Starscream didn't consider himself much of a snob. During his years serving the Decepticons there had been a lot of 'making do'. The _Nemesis_ itself currently sat at the bottom of the ocean, leaking, rusting, stinking like rotting fish. But still, the line had to be drawn somewhere.

"No." He said.

"It's this or nothing." Megatron glared.

"I pick nothing." And he meant it. "I'd rather walk through the night."

Megatron, who was tiring faster, his stamina run down to an all time low with the injury he refused to acknowledge, would probably rather sleep in a sewer than have to keep going.

"Then recharge outside or continue on your own." Megatron snapped, ducking through the door into the dark and derelict 'shed' they had found. He flicked a search light on, and with squeaks and skittering, the rodents covering the floor scattered, a crowd of them rushing past Megatron and out the door.

Starscream shrieked and hopped, terrified of them scaling him and trying to make a new nest amoungst his circuits.

"You did that on purpose!" He stamped his food thruster once the rats had cleared.

Megatron denied nothing. He shone the light around the now empty shed. "They're gone now."

Starscream peered past his shoulder and grimaced, "They've left their droppings behind."

"Join me when you get over yourself then," Megatron huffed, and slung the rickety door shut with a groan. Starscream watching the light shining between the wood panels go out, then shivered in the cold, wrapping his arms around himself.

Trust Megatron to hold him ransom to the cold to get his way. He _knew_ his frame conserved heat better than Starscream's did.

Biting his glossa to keep from shouting a curse, he kicked the door open and stormed in. It smelt musky, like wet mammal, but it was insulated, already a few degrees warmer than outside thank's to Megatron's presence.

"I want a bath in the morning." Starscream told the narrow red optics watching him in the darkness as he sat gingerly, hoping he wasn't squashing something organic. "I don't care if we have to detour fifty miles. I can't be seen in this condition."

Somewhere next to him, Megatron grunted. Starscream couldn't tell if that was a yes or no, but a thick arm found him in the darkness and urged him closer. Starscream shuffled around until Megatron's hip was beside his own. The combination of their expelled heat was almost comfortable, and Megatron smelt at least a little better than the shed. He turned his helm towards him, breathing deeply. Megatron's knee brushed his own.

They'd better be careful. They were getting closer and closer to cuddling every night.

 

* * *

 

"It's going to be cold." Megatron said softly.

Starscream stared out across the lake's crystal blue waters. He was itching to step into it, to wash away the mud, the dust, the _rat faeces_ and feel clean again. Megatron was right though. It was a chilly morning, the chilliest yet. Frost sparkled on the pebbles of the lake's shore.

He stuck his nose in the air and ignored Megatron.

He stepped in, and instantly the water felt like a thousand needles stabbing at his derma. He grit his denta and dipped the other foot, refusing to meet Megatron's concerned gaze, too stubborn to admit that he'd been right.

"Starscream?"

"It's f-f-fine." He hissed, water up to his knees now. He sped up his fuel pump, released anti-freeze into his lines, anything to keep the motors still going. An amber warning blinked in his processor, telling him he was risking system failures; cause; cold. Like he didn't already know.

He dropped to his knees and it punched the air from his intakes. "Oh!"

Splashing behind him meant Megatron had stepped into the water, "Starscream, you stubborn glitch, get out of there."

He shook his head, and with shaking servos plunged a wash cloth into the water and began scrubbing at his armour, working furiously and quickly to make the dull colours shine again.

He hadn't been this cold since- since-

A crimson warning popped up this time. System failure; imminent. The fuel in his lines was beginning to congeal and his legs ached. He ignored the pain, the unbearable cold- because Skyfire, he needed to find Skyfire, he couldn't give up- the water rushed up to meet him, flooding his vents, icy, sharp-

"Starscream!"

He was shook violently and suddenly he wasn't on a snow covered mountaintop, he was by a lake, with Megatron, shivering and dripping and coughing up water as he sat on it's shore. They both were.

He struggled to catch his breath, "Wh-whu-?"

"You blundering idiot!" Megatron was furious, he ripped the wash cloth from Starscream's limp servo and threw it. "You're going to kill yourself over ridiculous preening habits?!"

Before Starscream could defend himself, or even ask what had happened, he was yanked forwards into Megatron's chest, the pebbles of the shore clunking against his knees. His fingers scrambled against Megatron's solid chest to push him away, when a huge gust of hot air rushed from his vents and drowned Starscream's half-frozen circuits in blissful heat.

He stopped fighting and tucked closer, resting his chin on Megatron's shoulder, his unresponsive digits trapped and curled between their frames. Another gust of warmth and he melted in Megatron's arms, shivering weakly.

"Idiot." Megatron huffed again.

"Sss-sh-shu-" he tried to tell him to shut up, but gave up quickly.

He glanced between them, and saw Megatron's own dip in the water and cleaned away the worst of the dirt from his armour too. "W-worthh it."

Megatron snorted, huge chest jumping against Starscream's cheek.

He shuttered his optics. Yes, definitely worth it.

 


	3. Chapter 3

Megatron held Starscream's shaking servos, cupped them within his own huge black palms. He brought them up and ex-vented warm air onto them, rubbing the armour in an effort to bring the circuits beneath back to life. Starscream watched blankly, void of energy enough to protest the manhandling.

"You should have something to drink," Megatron rumbled, servos rubbing up and down his forearms. "Your core temperature has dropped..."

Starscream nodded numbly, jaw welded shut with the cold. Water had begun to freeze in his joints.

He looked up and found Megatron's stern optics watching him. He shivered.

Megatron drew him in again, squashing Starscream's nose against his chest and keeping him there with arms locked tight around his back. He looked skyward, at the clouded white sky. It looked like it was about to snow.

He hid his face against Megatron's shoulder, praying to whatever god that may be listening that it didn't. A blinding white blanket of snow made it near impossible to tell where he was going, or where he had been.

"You need to warm up."

Starscream shook his helm shakily. "I'mmm n-not go-goh-going-"

"-not going back in the shed," Megatron finished for him angrily, arms tightening momentarily. "You're impossible."

Starscream didn't think it was outlandish behaviour; not wanting to crawl back into that vermin infested shed. It was far worse in daylight than it had been last night.

"Alright." Megatron's warm breath gusted over the top of his helm. "Wait here."

He let go, and Starscream found himself reaching for him as he moved away. He stood, shaking, shivering, as Megatron began lifting large pieces of wood from the ground and throwing them at his pedes.

"Whu-wha-?"

"Building a fire." Megatron grunted, effortlessly chucking half a tree at him.

Once Megatron decided he had enough, he came back over, unsubspacing more of their stolen fuel and upending it over the firewood. Starscream watched, arms folded around himself, as Megatron bent and created a spark by snapping his fingers.

It took a few tries, but it took, the fuel picking up flames swiftly. Megatron reached over the fire for his wrist, drawing him closer.

"Th-this is-isn't going to-"

"It will work." Megatron said snappishly, stalking around the edge of the flames to his side. Starscream found himself being guided down, stiff legs aching and hardly responsive. Megatron didn't make him sit in the cold filthy leaf-ridden ground, but his lap instead. Starscream cringed, but Megatron's chest was warm against his back, and the fire scorching at his front.

Megatron prised his arms from around his middle and extended them, uncurled his palms over the flames, letting their warmth soak in past Starscream's armour to the derma beneath, liquidating the congealed fuel within his lines.

"Better?" Megatron's voice was warm too, a soft rumble in Starscream's left audial. His thumbs rubbed the palms of Starscream's extended servos, helping speed things along.

Starscream wasn't so cold anymore, but he shuddered, nodding, "...Yes."

The fire spat and crackled, and grew so hot it was burning his cheeks now.

Or maybe that was just his blush...

 

* * *

 

It did snow, but it wasn't so bad. It wasn't the blinding flurry he had suffered once before, alone and stranded on a prehistoric mountaintop, the call of Skyfire's name lost in the wind. The snow flakes were small and glistening, floating to the ground gently. Starscream extended his servo and caught one on the tip of his digit. It melted on impact, a tiny spec of water he rubbed between his digits.

"What is it?"

Megatron remained walking by his side now, no longer favouring their single file formation. Starscream appreciated it. Cold winds swept in between the trees. Chilling his back, It was easy to 'accidentally' sway against Megatron and steal some of his warmth.

"Nothing." He muttered, blinking melted snow from his optics. He peered down at Megatron's leg. It was bent at an angle so it wasn't taking weight. "Your leg will rust in this weather."

Megatron's expression hardened. He shifted his weight so he was stood on both legs. Starscream glared, wondering what sort of delusional pride was keeping Megatron from seeking treatment.

He took off, pace hobbled but brisk. Starscream had to jog to catch up, kicking up fallen twigs.

 

* * *

 

Darkness fell and he could see the stars again. There was a eeriness to the quiet of night. The last of the leaves to fall from their trees rustled in the gentle breeze, and Megatron's pedes snapped twigs as he walked, but beyond that? Nothing.

Most insects died in the cold, Starscream recalled, brushing by a frost covered trunk. There were no crickets chirping here. The mammals slept and the humans stayed indoors. Few could brace winter storms on this planet.

Skyfire hadn't.

"Megatron?" He called.

His leader had gone too far ahead for his comfort, just a moving shadow between the trees. At his voice, he turned, red optics startlingly bright amongst the blue tinged darkness of the frozen forest.

"What is it?" He asked, a note of concern to his tone.

Starscream didn't want to admit that it was nothing. He'd just... needed him to turn around, to speak. He bit his glossa, angry at himself and his mounting anxiety. The snow had barely settled. He was worrying over nothing. They weren't going to get separated. Megatron wasn't going to leave him. He wasn't.

"It's cold". He said instead. "We should stop."

Megatron stared at him unblinkingly. There was a pause and Starscream busied himself with the twigs at his pedes. Finally, with a deep sigh, the forest floor crunched under pede as Megatron backtracked towards him.

"We passed by shelter not five minutes ago." He rumbled, voice rich in Starscream's audials. He reached out and brushed a warm servo against Starscream's shoulder. He leant into it. "You should have said then-"

"I wasn't so _cold_ then." Starscream snapped, which was a lie. He was always cold.

Megatron didn't rise to the argument. He limped past Starscream, leading the way. Starscream instinctively reached for his back, but dropped his servo quickly. Shook his helm. Told himself to toughen up.

Megatron was here and he could cope with the cold. He could cope with the cold if he wasn't alone.

The shelter was barn on the edge of an open field. Megatron's search light passed over it slowly, and Starscream saw that it was wood painted red. Hardly the most insulating material, but better than nothing.

The barn door creaked open when Megatron pushed it. Starscream stood behind him, arms tucked across his chest. Waiting for the verdict. The scent of straw and fresh manure was dimmed in the cold, but still recognisable.

There were _animals_ in there.

"Moo..."

"No." Starscream stepped back. "I'm not going in there."

"You said you were cold." Megatron growled, sticking his helm back out. "They're locked in some sort of pen. You'll be fine."

"I'm not _scared_ of them!" Starscream hissed. "They smell."

"They're animals, of course they do." Megatron growled. "It's clean in here."

Megatron's servo curled around his wrist and Starscream found himself being pulled along. It was warmer inside, heated for the comfort of the farm animals. Cautious, Starscream peered at them. Mammals. Bovine of some sort. Large eyes and thick fur and curious noses poking through the bars in their pen.

Megatron looked over them, interested. Their heads tilted up, noses sniffing.

"Don't touch them." Starscream muttered, kicking up some of the straw. There were bales of it stacked up against the opposite wall. Good. He could sleep on them.

"They're brave animals," Megatron commented, still distracted by his new friends.

"They're cows!" Starscream snapped. "Animals fattened for food."

Megatron paused, his gaze softening.

"...Shame." He murmured, and lowered his servo just enough that the cows could brush their noses against his finger tip. Their ears flicked back and forth, but still, they were unafraid of him.

Starscream busied himself with making a comfortable bed for the night. He lined up the straw bales and pushed them together, making himself a flat soft surface to lie across. There was plenty of straw so he had room for his wings-

Then remembered he didn't _have_ wings.

He sat on the edge, ready to have a long and distressing mope about that, when Megatron dropped down next to him, sending lose straw flying.

"This is _my_ straw." Starscream shoved him.

Megatron swayed with the blow but didn't leave. "And you made it big enough for the both of us." He commented, laying back and disturbing the perfect formation of the bales. Starscream scrambled to tuck them back into place.

"You're messing it up."

"Just lie down, Starscream." Megatron suggested, making himself comfortable.

There wasn't all that much room now, thanks to Megatron's fat aft. The cows mooed and watched from their pen. Starscream had a feeling he was being judged by them. He sneered, and awkwardly, mindful of messing up his makeshift bed further, squeezed himself on the edge behind Megatron.

The only way he could lie comfortably was if he was pressed right up against the larger mech's back.

Which was warm and solid and smooth against his chest.

"Move up" he demanded, voice muffled against Megatron's armour.

"I can't."

Starscream snorted. A likely story.

He kicked the back of Megatron's legs on purpose. Megatron grunted but didn't move. His frame heavy with exhaustion and unmoving. Awkwardly, Starscream laid a servo on his waist, just to have somewhere to put it.

Megatron didn't react to it, and Starscream let his optics drift shut. It was the warmest he had been in days, pressed against Megatron in a barn full of livestock.

He decided not to let it bother him.

 

* * *

 

He dreamed he was in orbit, looking through the transport ship's view-port at the dusty blue planet below. Clouds span in slow spirals, huge storms covering the surface of a planet almost entirely consisting of water and ice.

"It'll be cold." Skyfire's voice drifted over from the flight deck. "Don't forget to pack the anti-freeze."

Starscream had just hummed. He'd get to it. It was Skyfire who was the forgetful one.

"Starscream?" His partner called. "Did you hear me? Starscream?"

A servo jostled his shoulder and he opened his optics to find, not Skyfire, but Megatron. He rubbed his optics, chasing away the last vestiges of his dream as Megatron tugged his wrist to get him up.

"What the- it's still dark outside." He complained, wondering how long they'd been asleep.

"The human's will rise soon." Megatron explained, plucking the straw from his joints and seams.

Starscream looked down at himself and despaired to see he was in just as much of a mess. He shook his frame to loosen the straw and the cows in their pen mooed and jostled one another in surprise, annoyed with him.

Megatron murmured something he couldn't hear, reaching over the pen and brushing the tip of his finger down the back of one, his armour gentle against the fur and flesh. The cow mooed and knocked her head against his knuckle. In the dim lighting, Starscream caught Megatron's smile.

"If you're quite done _petting_ them..." He drawled impatiently.

Megatron got the hint, standing and wobbling with a wince. There was darkness around the joint in his leg, which meant his wound was leaking oil again. Neither of them commented on it as Starscream waited for Megatron to recover.

They left the barn and rushed into the cold winter air. Megatron's vents gushed with wisps of warm air as he exhaled. The barren soil was rock hard under Starscream's aching thrusters, frost glistening where it caught the light of the rising sun.

The sky changed from blue to amber, clouds pinkening in the sky. In the distance, fields away, Starscream spied a building, the farm house, smoke drifting from it's chimney. How he envied the humans and their cosy little home.

"You were talking." Megatron said, apropos of nothing, once the sun was high enough to shine golden light though silver tree branches. "In your recharge."

Starscream felt uncomfortable. He kicked a stone as he walked, slowing his pace in hopes that Megatron would walk on ahead and not expect an answer.

"About Skyfire." Megatron continued when he said nothing.

Starscream grunted, tucking his chin close to his chest. "What of it?"

Megatron didn't speak for a while. "I'm attempting to make conversation."

"I prefer the silence." Starscream muttered.

It was Megatron who grunted this time, and then they both lapsed into silence, as stubborn as one another.

It was a better day than the one before though. It didn't snow at least.

 

* * *

 

Walking through farmland meant there was shelter and fuel in relative abundance. Starscream waited as he watched Megatron pilfer from the tank of a glistening black tractor. He scowled, glancing at his own dirt speculated armour.

"I need to wash this off." He muttered.

Megatron's dark face rose over the tractor. "Not this again."

"With warm water them." Starscream hissed through his denta. "I just feel... Disgusting. I'm covered in the grime of everywhere we've been on this filthy planet."

"It's not a priority," Megatron rose up on one knee, then paused as he mustered the strength to straighten the bad leg. Starscream watched unsympathetically.

"Your leg is."

"Enough!" Megatron suddenly snapped, face pale and optics bright with pain. "I know my limitations. It will be fine."

It wouldn't be fine, but Starscream wasn't going to go around in circles arguing about it until they both lost their tempers and did worse to one another. He shrugged and turned away, glaring at the sky, darkening already, so he didn't have to look at Megatron.

With creaks and painful sounding groans, it sounded like Megatron was on his pedes again. Starscream turned back to see him bracing himself against the emptied tractor. His chest felt tight at the sight.

Stupid stubborn _idiotic_ -

"Let's go." Megatron straightened to his full height, shoulders squared, like the injury simply didn't exist anymore.

Starscream wished he could believe that.

 

* * *

 

 That night found them alone. Without cows, but without walls too.

They had a roof, sheltering them from the clouds that looked ready to unleash hell, but not the wind came from all directions. Starscream felt no shame in tucking himself against Megatron's side, knees and arms held close to his chest.

Megatron sat, with his legs extended out, servos in his lap, chin drooping towards his chest. It didn't look comfortable.

Starscream poked him.

Megatron cracked an optic online and squinted at him.

"Lie down." Starscream said, tugging on a shoulder to make him comply.

By some miracle Megatron did, shuffling down onto his back. Starscream shifted to lie half on top of him, soaking up the warmth from his chest and vents. His digits drifted across the powerful armour, catching in scratches and dents from battles long since passed. An arm fell over his back, thumb brushing the hinges were his wings had been.

He shuddered, but didn't push them away.

"Skyfire." Megatron said quietly, voice almost lost to the wind. "Did you love him?"

Starscream offlined his optics and turned his face the other way. He'd rather feign sleep than answer such a damning question.

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

Megatron moved through the forest like the trees parted _for_ him, branches folding away and snapping against his armour. Sick of twigs springing back and whacking him in the face, Starscream kept his distance and picked his own route. Without his wings -a thought that made his chest ache- he could slip between the trees without having to fell their branches anyway.

Though their trek across this landscape seemed endless, Starscream's navigational sensors said they were making progress. The _Nemesis_ sat some two thousand miles west of their location.

"What are we going to do when we reach the shore?" Starscream stepped over a log and glanced to his left, where trees crashed and groaned, shoved aside by Megatron's massive frame.

"I will assess the situation when we get there."

 _If_ we get there, Starscream thought cynically, watching Megatron brace himself against a tree and stretch his bad leg. If _he_ got there.

They continued in silence, Starscream listening to the rustling and crunch of Megatron's pedefalls. Until suddenly they stopped. He was about to ask what the hold up was, when he heard it. A distant hum, like the beat of an Insecticons wings.

Or helicopter blades.

It was testament to how desperate he was for rescue that he lifted his helm, searching for the source of the noise and hoping it was Vortex. Megatron's servo slapped to the top of his helm and shoved down.

"Ow!"

"Get down," Megatron snarled, knocking a tree as he wrestled him low, down to the hard frozen earth and it's broken twigs and wet leaves.

"Urgh!"

"Be quiet and stop squirming," Megatron laid his bulk on top of him, keeping him pinned. Starscream huffed and blew leaves from in front of his face, furious at his predicament.

"You're hurting my back!"

The weight shifted, but didn't let up. Starscream couldn't even turn around to see what was going on. The chopper blades grew louder, vibrations cutting through the trees until the hum was deafening in his audials. He glanced up, straining to see past Megatron, searching the dusty grey sky, wishing that were him up there, and not some undeserving fleshling pilot.

"Don't move." Megatron breathed, mouth next to his helm. Starscream winced at the sensation, turning his face away.

"You're breathing on me!"

"I'm trying to keep us hidden!"

"So what if it sees us?" Starscream hissed, resentful and itching for a fight. A piloted helicopter was hardly a match for him. Even without his wings. "Let it come."

"They're insects," Megatron reminded him, "You kill one and dozens more will come."

The sound of the rotor-blades rose and fell, like it was circling the area. Starscream began to twitch. What reason did it have to linger if it hadn't already seen them or the path Megatron had cut through the trees? If Megatron wasn't such an indelicate thug it would have left by now.

"You've given us away."

"Quiet!"

"They could have been following us for miles-"

"I said," a servo curled around his chin, threatening to muffle him. "Quiet."

Starscream didn't argue because he didn't want Megatron's filthy servos all over his mouth. He huffed, clawing at the cold earth, listening to the hum, the chopping of blades, echoing down through the trees.

Until it started to fade.

"...It's gone." Megatron finally spoke. Starscream felt his heavy frame relax. He twisted and shoved.

"Then get off!"

Megatron fell to the side with a heavy thunk, the trunk of a nearby tree cracking and splintering under his weight. He winced, bad leg taking his weight, servo darting to it. Starscream instantly regretted it.

He scowled to hide his guilt. "Are you going to let me fix that yet?"

"Perhaps when the forge of Unicron freezes over," Megatron snapped, and Starscream suddenly didn't need to hide his regret anymore. Any sympathy he had for Megatron slipped away.

He brushed dead leaves from his shoulders and left Megatron sat miserably on the ground

"Suit yourself."

 

* * *

 

  
No helicopters or human search parties returned to find them. Starscream assumed they were safe.

Which was a good job too because Megatron couldn't walk more than five minutes at a time without having to stop, clutching at a tree, his vents hard and laboured. Starscream was angry just so he didn't have to feel sick with anxiety. The sky was darkening and he worried that when they stopped for the night, Megatron might not be able to get back up.

"A few more miles." He said, trying not to look at how Megtaron's back was bowed, shoulders shaking- and not from the cold. "My sensors detect human settlements west of here. There will be buildings. You can rest then."

Megatron didn't say anything, not even a snappish retort that he gave the orders on his pitscape of a trek.

"Megatron?" He took a concerned step forward.

"I heard you." Megatron forced himself to straighten. He waved him ahead. "Go."

Starscream did, reluctantly. He wasn't used to leading them, and part of him worried about stepping on a trap again. Common sense told him it was unlikely the humans would place them so close to home at the risk of injuring themselves. And they were close. The lights from the settlement cast a sickly orange glow in the sky above the trees ahead. Not far now.

Megatron stopped again, and thinking it was because of his injury, Starscream did too, pretending to study his internal guidance systems to spare Megatron's dignity.

"Smoke."

Starscream turned to Megatron. "Huh?"

His leader's helm was up, tilted northwards. "I smell smoke."

"Fleshlings." Starcsream realised, approaching and peering carefully through the trees. There was indeed smoke, and humans. They had gathered themselves around a huge bonfire, their delicate fleshy skin insulated with puffy, fur-lined garments as they talked and laughed.

"Let's go." Starscream said, tugging on Megatron's wrist. The armour beneath his palm wasn't as warm as it should have been. He felt another pang of worry, thinking of another frame, stiff and lifeless in a block of ice.

Megatron was oblivious to his shaky exhale as he regained control of himself, too busy being over curious of the fleshlings. He stayed, bending to see them better through the gaps in the trees.

"They're listening to music."

"All the more reason to leave." Starscream muttered. His audials were one of few systems on his frame not suffering. He didn't want to change that. He tugged Megatron again. "We need shelter-"

"I need rest." Megatron murmured without looking at him, and his optics looked a little vacant. Starscream hoped it was just tiredness, and not... some sort of mental problem brought on by the pain in his leg.

Since Megatron was distracted he gave the injury a glance, cringing at the thick oil tracking down the grey of his leg. There was dirt and grim around the wound. Starscream wouldn't be surprised if it was rusting, infected. It might even fall off on it's own.

Starscream bit his lip to keep himself from losing his temper and exploding with pent up emotions. The humans and their music weren't so loud that they wouldn't hear him screaming at Megatron for being such a block head.

In their quiet lapse the music seemed to rise. It was haunting, yet somehow peaceful, a chorus of voices singing a rising melody. It reached through the trees with the same chilling power of the wind.

"- _night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright-"_

He nudged Megatron again, "I'm cold."

That did it. Megatron blinked slowly, taking himself out of his stupor. "I'm coming." He agreed, steps lumbering at first before he found the right balance between pain and progress. Starscream almost reached out to help him, to offer a shoulder, but he doubted that would have been well recieved.

He picked their way through the flattest terrain, kicking obstacles out of the way. The least he could do was make the path ahead easier.

 

* * *

 

They must have been unknowingly moving back towards the urbanised areas. Between the helicopter and the group in the woods, humans were becoming more abundant.

The settlement was a small town, with small buildings and few roads. Trucks traversed the icy streets slowly, which were well lit thanks to an abundance of lights. Strings of them crossed overhead, red and green and decorative. Probably for some sort of festival, Starscream decided.

There was a warehouse on the outskirts of town. It wasn't abandoned, nor unlocked, but Megatron was gripping buildings and trees like crutches now. The warehouse was protected by a security alarm. Starscream made quick work of it then lifted the shutter, nodding for Megatron to go in first.

"We'll be caught." Megatron muttered vacantly, but limped on ahead.

Starscream closed the shutter after them, keeping out the wind.

By virtue of the warehouse being active there was electricity, and heating. Starscream left the lights off, not want to advertise their presence, but cranked the heating up to full, keen to finally bring his toe-pedes and digits back to life.

Megatron dropped in some random corner, crumpling a few cardboard boxes under his aft.

"Get up " Starscream growled, pulling on his wrist again. "You're sitting with me. By the heater."

"I don't need a heater." Megatron said, seemingly oblivious to how much he did. The heat that previously gushed from his frame was gone and his vents stuttered when he exhaled, like his internal mechanisms were begining to fail.

"Yes you do. Up. Get up." Starscream pulled, and pulled harshly, not caring if he pulled Megatron's arm out of it's damn socket. He wasn't waking up in the morning and finding a stasis locked ice cube in place of a leader.

He wasn't making the rest of this trip alone.

He half dragged Megatron out of the mess of smashed cardboard, until Megatron realised he was the more stubborn of the two, and got to his knees. It took him a moment, and Starscream didn't yank on him again, chest panging at the struggle to was for him just to take his own weight.

"You're an idiot." Starscream told him, throat feeling tight. "Sit down. Sit here."

Megatron did. Starscream looked back at the drips of black oil he had left in his wake. Megatron let his helm knock back against the warehouse wall and slung an arm over the heater. Starscream didn't drop down next to him. He couldn't settle down to recharge yet.

Because _someone_ was trying to die on him.

He had work to do.

"I'm fixing your leg." He said. Megatron didn't reply. His optics were shuttered, mouth parted.

Good, Starscream thought. He'd suffer no more prostests over this.

He pulled out his cleaning cloth -his _only_ one- and said a silent goodbye to ever being able to rub the grime and watermarks away from his frame when he lowered it to the mess that was the joint on Megatron's leg. He carefully cleared away the thick oil and muck. The plating under had rusted in places, and fresh energon began to seep out.

The wound was deep and still dirty. It looked so far into an infection that even Megatron's self repair was struggling to fight it. He needed something to patch the wound. Something to stop the spread of rust. Something to stop it getting any worse until a medic could repair him properly.

The warehouse they were in seemed to print books, which was beyond useless. There was no heavy equipment. Not even a welder.

He needed tools.

"Megatron," he said softly, shaking his good leg. "Megatron?"

Megatron mumbled dazedly.

"I have to find tools." He explained, glancing out the window to see snow had begun to fall again. He swallowed. "I have to go out and find something to repair you with."

Still no response.

He reached into his subspace for some fuel and extended it to Megatron, hoping a fresh boost of energy would bring him back, at least enough to open his optics and act alive and not-

"You need to drink something." Starscream pressed when still Megatron didn't so much as stir. Starscream took his limp servo and pushed the fuel into it, trying to curl big digits around it's container. Megatron wouldn't grip it.

"Fraggit!" He yelled, smashing the fuel to the floor in anger. Megatron didn't react, his helm had fallen against the wall at a weird angle.

"You're so _stupid_ -" Starscream hissed, denta clenched against the emotions that wanted to well up. He checked Megatron vents. He was still breathing, barely, and hadn't gone into stasis.

But the likelihood of him making it through the night...

He was going to have to go out into the snow. Alone.

"I'm coming right back." He said, convincing himself more than the unconscious Megatron. "I'm not leaving you. I'm coming back. I swear..."

Megatron didn't answer. But then he hadn't expected him to.

Starscream lifted the shutter on the warehouse door. The snow had already begun to settle. It dusted his shoulders when he lowered the shutter down again, taking one last look at Megatron's slumped frame at the other end. "I'm coming back." He called to him, then shut the shutter.

He had seen an automobile repair shop when sneaking in with Megatron. Fleshling tools were subpar at best, but they would do, and he was nothing if not good at improvising.

He took off, avoiding the roads and trying to recall the way in thickening snow. He stepped over backyard fences, accidently destroyed a swing set, and nearly woke the whole town when he walked into a pair of trash cans.

He kicked the trash off his pede and hopped across the street, ducking the hanging lights. One small upside to not having wings was that they didn't get caught in them.

It was getting hard to see his way. The street lights became dim indistinguishable blurs as the snow flurry thickened. He remembered the last night he'd been out in a snow storm, it had been darker then, his legs buried in it up to his knees.

He shook his helm. No, he wasn't going there. The humans had lit their streets with lights and he _could_ see the way. He'd lost one partner, but Megatron was waiting for him back at the warehouse. He would do for him what he had failed to for Skyfire.

He blinked away water, his panic warming his frame against the chill of melting snow. The wind blew in and the snow cleared enough that he could see a red blinking sign at the other end of the street.

_Joe & Son's Auto-repair_

Starscream felt a rush of relief.

He kicked in the door to the repair garage, dropping to his knees and sticking an arm in to pilfer whatever he could find. He subspaced a tool chest, a welder, spare car parts, cleaner fluid and a pot of wax- not just for himself, he'd be willing to share. He took a few jerry cans too, just in case.

Megatron wasn't going to die in some backwards fleshling hovel. Starscream was going to fix him, and then drag him the rest of the way if he had to.

He had to.

 


	5. Chapter 5

The first thing Megatron was aware of was his leg, an ache that spread down to his toe pedes and up to his hip, and the stiffness of gears in the morning that was always worsened by the cold.

But he didn't feel cold. He was lying on something warm, head lifted off the hard floor, something stroking his helm.

He threw up a servo to shoo whatever it was away but his arm responded lazily, barely twitching. The stroking stopped, a warm palm stilling on his cheek, turning his helm. His sight was myopic. Colours blurred, gold and white and red and sky blue. Pretty colours, familiar and comforting, though he couldn't place why.

"-awake?" A coarse voice was speaking quietly. "Megatron?"

Megatron wanted to offline his optics and recharge for a thousand years, to let himself slip off into stasis and escape the throbbing in his sensor net. His leg- it was like someone had shot him all over again.

"-don't-" the voice was back, louder, more forceful. He felt the cool rim of a can against his lips, something lifting his helm in encouragement to drink. "-a few more hours." The voice continued as he did. It was gentle and soft, not at all what he was used to from overworked and under-appreciated medics.

The servo found his cheek again, claws considered deadly by most traced the lines of his face so gently.

"-won't leave you." was the last thing Megatron heard as his optics slipped shut again, the fuel warm and filling and easing his frame back into recharge.

"Starscream," he mumbled, glossa heavy and thick, realising vacantly whose lap his helm was pillowed in, and not minding too much at all.

 

* * *

 

Megatron stirred a few times as he worked on him.

When Starscream had first cut him open, sliced off the rusted, unsalvageable armour, he'd awoken with a yell, battle protocols firing online and ready to tear him to pieces. Starscream jabbed a finger in the wound until the pain caused him to pass out again. It was that or hit him over the helm with a steel beam; and then they're be two injuries to deal with.

After cutting past the armour came the tricky part, clamping energon lines and cleaning out the rust and dirt in the dark warehouse. There was only so much a search light could do. He had to replace gears, re-weld broken struts. How Megatron had walked on this mess of a limb for so long, he had no idea.

He considered removing it altogether, but unlike wings, legs were tricky to detach. Megatron wouldn't be able to walk to start with, and if Starscream removed it incorrectly, it might not be reattach-able. Hook would have to send for a replacement from Cybertron, and they didn't just come off conveyor belts anymore. It would never be the same, never as good as this wreck he was currently dragging behind him.

He had to try. Either it was going to work, or it wasn't, but it was better than doing nothing.

Megatron woke one last time towards the end, big helm rolling in Starscream's lap as he removed thigh armour to start disconnecting some of the pain sensors. Not all, or it would be like he was dragging a dead limb, but just enough to make the pain endurable.

Megatron didn't appear to remember having woken up before, thank Primus. He mumbled and flailed a little, and appeared completely out of it. Starscream forced a cube down him and he was soon snoring again, his nose pressed against Starscream's cockpit.

"You'd better thank me when you come around." He grumbled, checking his chrono as he worked. He had a few hours till morning, maybe he'd catch some recharge but that was unlikely.

He wasn't even sure he should cycle down when Megatron was in such a poor state. What if he shifted and knocked his repairs, and Starscream woke up covered in energon and mech fluid and Megatron's dead frame?

Or maybe he was being ridiculous. He pushed invasive thoughts aside, concentrated on Megatron now, asleep, breathing, and warm again.

A good thing too. He glanced at the little windows towards the ceiling of the warehouse, darkened with snow gathering on the windowsill.

When dawn came in three hours time, he couldn't only hope Megatron was awake, and that the snow had stopped.

 

* * *

 

Dawn came and Megatron was up, slumped against the wall and staring at the wonky welding lines running across his knee and down from mid shin to mid thigh. Starscream had thought his servo was steadier than that. He felt defensively embarrassed.

"I did the best I could." He huffed.

"I know." Megatron's voice was soft and tired. "Thank you."

Having expected an argument, or at least to be shouted at for disobeying Megatron's orders not to tamper with his leg, Starscream wasn't sure what to do with himself in the face of genuine gratitude. He busied himself with collecting the tools he'd stolen and slipping them into his subspace. With their luck they'd need them again.

"It's getting light." Megatron commented.

"Hmm," Starscream agreed, still wondering if Megatron would be able to get up, and how he would bear his weight if he couldn't. Hook would have kept him off an injury so severe for at least two weeks, and wouldn't have let him leave the base for another month after that.

"The humans will be here soon. They'll discover us."

Starscream scoffed, "Obviously we'll be gone before then."

"You will."

The welder he'd been picking up slipped from his digits and clattered back to the warehouse floor. " _We_ will," he corrected, snatching the welder back up and shoving it into his subspace.

Megatron looked at him wearily, "Starscream."

"I swear to Primus," Starscream kept snatching up the tools, growing angrier with every one he crammed into his subspace. "If you tell me to leave you behind-"

"I can't walk, Starscream."

"So?!" He whipped around and threw a can of bolts to the ground. They skidded and rolled noisily across the floor, coming to stop not far from Megatron's extended leg.

Megatron just looked at him, undeterred.

"I'll carry you."

"I'm too heavy."

"I'm stronger than you think!" Starscream snarled, "You're always underestimating me."

"That's not what this is about."

"Oh, isn't it?!" Starscream threw his arms up. "That's not why you didn't let me look at your leg before the slagging thing nearly killed you? If you weren't so stubborn-"

"Oh, _I'm_ stubborn?" Megatron tilted his helm, suddenly a lot more animated now that he was being goaded into an argument.

"Yes, you're stubborn!" Starscream pointed at him, voice echoing shrilly around the warehouse. "You and that big inflated bucket of a head, always thinking you know what's best, and you know your limits and guess what?!?"

Megatron sighed heavily.

"I was right! You don't know your limits, you delusion blimp!" He declared, on a roll now and unable to stop. "I told you! I told you, but does anyone ever listen to Starscream? No! Of course not! That would make far too much sense!"

Megatron rubbed a servo down his face tiredly, "I get it-"

"No, you don't get it!" Starscream bellowed, advancing on him and looming, taking full advantage of him being weak and in pain and on the floor. "I am not going to suffer freezing nights out there, alone, while you get to sit in some cosy fleshling prison while you wait for the Autobots to collect you."

"That's quite a spin on being captured." A wry smirk spread across Megatron's face. He sighed, "Alright..."

Starscream pointed a digit between Megatron's optics threateningly. "Say it."

Megatron's gaze darkened. "I'm coming."

"And?"

"...You were right."

Starscream span away and went to scoop up the bolts he'd thrown down. "Don't you forget it."

 

* * *

 

Megatron was heavy, but Starscream had kicked up far too much of a fuss now to mention it. He slung the thick arm over his shoulder and wrapped his own around Megatron's waist. He was warm, which was one small mercy at least.

They snuck out of the warehouse via the parking lot, where Starscream spied a tarp hooked over a car, protecting it from the elements. He stole it, shook off the snow, ripped it half and tied it around Megatron's leg. That should slow down the rust.

Megatron scowled at it, but knew now not to argue with him and kept his mouth sealed shut. Their pedes crunched in the untouched blanket of snow. It would be a telling clue for the humans when they returned to find their warehouse broken into and Cybertronian treads leading away from it. They'd have Autobots on their tail before long.

They were out of the town not long before the sun began to peak over the top of the hills, painting the frozen white blanket a warm orange. Starscream almost thought it pretty, once he got past his disdain for the snow.

"Isn't it unusual for someone to hold such a grudge against the _weather_?" Megatron commented, too close not to notice his grimace every time the snow crunched underpede.

Starscream wished he could walk away and ignore him. Such a choice was gone to him now. "I'll drop you." He threatened.

"I don't think you will." Megatron huffed. Warm breath wafted over Starscream's cheek. "Why do you hate snow? I thought the scientist in you would have enjoyed the novelty."

"Why are you so talkative today?" Starscream muttered, stepping sideways to help Megatron steer between two trees. "There is no novelty. It's frozen water. Wet and cold and uncomfortable."

"Not something we experience on Cybertron." Megatron murmured, helm tilted toward the branches overheard, silver with snow. His optics brightened wondrously.

Starscream snorted, "Oh, what are you going to do? Compose a poem about it?"

Megatron huffed, sounding tired, "Perhaps."

His brow was creased and his limping had slowed. Starscream glanced at him, then his leg, in worry, "Do you need a break?" He asked, looking around for somewhere to set his leader down. "Maybe some fuel-"

"When did you become such a good nursemaid." Megatron commented good-naturedly, slowly sinking down onto a log.

"When you became a useless, crippled old mech." Starscream bit back nastily, unsubspacing some fuel and shoving it at him. "Lift your leg. I'll take a look."

"It's fine." Megatron's mood sunk again.

Starscream set his servos on his hips and gave him a Look. "Didn't we already have this discussion this morning?"

Grumbling, but knowing Starscream was right, Megatron lifted his bad leg. Starscream dropped to a crouch and hoisted Megatron's pede into his lap, brushing snow from the tip. He untied the tarp and peeled it back. The welds looked like they were holding. He brushed one tentatively.

Megatron flinched and nearly spilled his fuel down himself.

"Sorry," he murmured softly, folding the tarp back around the injury, being careful not to touch it again.

"It's midday." Megatron said, apropos of nothing. "We've made slow progress. You'd be faster alone."

Starscream stood and held out his servo to pull Megatron to his pedes. "Maybe I would."

Megatron took his servo, and there was a pause before Starscream pulled him up, a thumb on the back of his servo, pressing down, stroking. "Now who is the stubborn one?" He asked.

Starscream gripped him and with great effort, tugged him to his pedes. "Still you." He said, wrapped Megatron's arm around himself. "Let's go, _gimpy_."

The arm around his neck tightened like Megatron was going to trap him in a helm lock, before releasing again with a grumble. "Remember who you're talking to. Count yourself lucky I need you as a crutch.

Starscream held Megatron's wrist and smirked. "Yes sir, _lord_ gimpy."

He really was pulled into a headlock then, but it was light and playful and Megatron fell flat on his aft when Starscream pushed him off. He hauled him back up again, trying not to laugh. Oh, how the tables had turned.

 

* * *

 

There was another town on the horizon. Starscream shifted his weight and rolled his shoulder where it was aching from Megatron leaning on him. Could they risk deliberately wandering into occupied territory when they were so vulnerable? They'd been lucky last night.

He stayed on the outskirts, looking for roads into farmland, somewhere without street lights and security cameras.

Until he saw light from a field up ahead, flickering through the trees.

"What is that?" Megatron huffed, tired and grumpy from the long day limping.

"Some sort of gathering." Starscream realised, dragging him along as he went to investigate, spying dozens of cars, parked in lines.

The light they'd seen was being projected onto a screen- a film, the sort from a reel. How primitive. The cars were parked facing it, the humans inside watching. Twinkling lights and signs decorated the field.

"Merry Christmas," Starscream read off one of them. "Special X-Mas screening."

On the actual screen itself the fleshling characters were involved in some sort of slapstick humour. A human spawn threw a can of paint attached to a string down the stairs, hitting two men in the head and casting them to the floor dramatically. How juvenile.

"This is what passes for human entertainment." Starscream sneered.

On his shoulder, Megatron huffed in amusement.

"Are you _laughing_?" Starscream looked at him in shock.

A shoulder lifted in a shrug, "It's violence." He said, as if that explained it all.

That injury was making him loopy. With a grumble, Starscream helped him down, untying the tarp again to take a look. Megatron let him without protest, his chin tilted up so he could watch the movie.

Starscream ignored him. The weld looked fine, but it was the components underneath that he worried about. He shone a light into the seams of Megatron's thigh, squinting at the wires and fuel lines.

Megatron huffed again in amusement at something on screen.

"Stop moving." He admonished. "The sooner I check your repairs the sooner we can leave."

"We can spare a moment."

Starscream looked at Megatron like the old mech had finally lost the last of his screws. "You want us to sit out here? It's cold!"

"I'll keep you warm." Megatron promised, an arm curling around his back and drawing him closer.

He was warm, which was the problem. Starscream let himself be manoeuvred against Megatron's side, tucked in under his arm. He folded his servos in his lap to keep them warm, and Megatron's hand slipped in and joined them.

"You can see the stars tonight." He murmured.

Starscream glanced up. Stargazing wasn't something he particularly wanted to indulge in. They were tools at best, a method of finding his way. They'd been no good when he'd lost Skyfire. Hidden behind cloud too thick....

Digits stroked down his shoulder, feather light. He shivered, looked up and into Megatron's face.

"You're still cold." Megatron  said, squeezing his digits.

Starscream nodded numbly, not actually feeling cold at all. He felt a heat ignite low in his belly, spreading through his limbs and burning in his cheeks.

The film was coming to an end, with twinkling music and fleshlings coming together to embrace, arms tight around one another. Starscream wasn't watching though. Megatron's digits lifted off his shoulder and skimmed his jaw. A thumb brushed his chin. Starscream opened his mouth, exhaling until his intakes were empty. He felt lightheaded. He couldn't breathe.

Megatron _kissed_ him.

The tip of his nose nudged his cheek, it was cold, but his lips were warm and soft, and gentle. Starscream kissed back unthinkingly, gripping Megatron's servo in his lap tight. It was chaste and a little fumbled, like neither of them had really expected it to last more than that first brief moment, and not knowing what to do now but just keep going.

The screen faded to black as the film ended and the trees around them turned dark in shadow. All Starscream could see was the crimson shine of Megatron's optics when he finally drew away.

Starscream swallowed, the silence broken by the slamming of car doors and humans laughing. He cleared his throat.

"Let's go then." He said, standing abruptly and thrusting his servo down for Megatron to take.

He tried not to think too much on the disappointed expression marring his leader's face.

 

 


	6. Chapter 6

Starscream had nightmares. Megatron wasn't sure if Starscream knew he knew; they were subtle, never seeming to wake him with a start in the middle of the night, a scream bursting from his vocaliser. Though they, like with most things concerning Starscream's personal life, were closely guarded and left unacknowledged.

But he stirred, he twitched, he whispered the name 'Skyfire' in a desperate ragged voice, he'd say he was sorry till his voice died away. A servo would tighten on his arm, claws catching in his armour seams, like he didn't want to let go.

Megatron was no stranger to trauma. He'd seen mechs ruined by it, he'd seen some conquer it, he himself, wasn't keen on facing the dark thoughts that lingered in the back of his mind, waiting for their chance, waiting for him to be vulnerable. Something about their ordeal was taking more than just a physical tole on Starscream.

They found a rusted shed, filled with farming equipment, old paint cans, bits of wood. Starscream set him down against the outside and went to work cleaning it out, chucking things like wheels and chicken coops and pitchforks out behind him in careless disarray.

Megatron gripped the side of the shed when Starscream looked almost finished. He began hauling himself upright.

"What are you doing?!"

Megatron turned at the shrill voice and found Starscream's furious face glaring at him through the dusty window inside the shed. He sighed.

"You're going to hurt yourself!" Starscream yelled, and Megatron could hear him banging and clattering inside as he tripped and kicked over whatever he hadn't yet cleared away as he fought to escape the shed. "Sit down!"

"I'm already up!" Megatron argued back, tired of being treated like a crystal chandelier- or an invalid. He had preferred it when Starscream was sneering at him and being unsympathetic.

Starscream finally stumbled out of the shed, kicking loose a bundle of wire from his pede and swearing.

Megatron wearily lifted his arm in preparation for having himself slung over Starscream. He was pulled close, Starscream tutting and peering down at his leg. "Can't leave you alone for five minutes."

"It's fine." Megatron snarled.

" _It's fine_." Starscream mimicked him, taking on the cadence of a dimwitted caveman to do so. Megatron scowled. "Am I supposed to take your word for it, oh font of medical wisdom?"

Megatron deliberately leant more weight against Starscream. Predictably, the seeker faltered, knees buckling with a hissed cursed. "Stop that!"

"I'm not doing anything." Megatron lied petulantly, leaning against him again.

This time Starscream swayed and fell against the doorway to the shed. Megatron snorted when he started spluttering and turned bright purple in the face. "You- juvenile-! Ill drop you!"

Megatron was fairly certain he wouldn't. Not when he had gone through so much trouble repairing him, carrying him, fretting over him like an old caretaker. He wouldn't be surprised that if Starscream _could_ find a blanket he'd use it to try and tuck him in.

Overzealous carrier protocols, he decided, perhaps for the sake of his own dignity. All seekers were like this. They saw something they perceived as vulnerable and theirs and they started fussing. Megatron could only hope his leg healed quickly so he could remind Starscream who the one needing taking care of really was.

Starscream didn't drop him in the end, but he didn't let him down lightly. Megatron's back thudded against the rickety wall of the shed and the entire structure swayed. Starscream flinched like he thought the whole thing was going to come crashing down on top of them. Perhaps it had been filled with so much junk in an attempt to aid support and keep it standing.

"Thanks to your stupid detour it's past midnight." Starscream complained, dropping down next to Megatron, squeezing himself in between the wall and his side. He tucked his knees and arms in close, curled into a little ball. "We'll have to start moving again in a few hours."

The detour in question had been worth it in Megatron's opinion. A much needed break, and not just one to recharge or catch their breath. Just to sit, together, close, Starscream's armour shining in the glow of the moon...

Starscream fidgeted, uncomfortable, but for some reason not moving in to lean on him like he did every other night.

Megatron thought of their brief kiss, and realised that was probably why.

He lifted his arms above his helm and yawned, long and loud. Starscream glanced at him frowning, but didn't say anything when Megatron brought them back down again, this time with his right slung over Starscream's shoulder. He pulled him in.

Starscream was stiff at first. Megatron tugged lightly, and that's all it took for his dark helm to drop to Megatron's chest, knees shifting and knocking his own.

They sat like that in silence, in a swaying shed full of rusty tools. Starscream fell asleep before he did, and with his exhaustion came snoring. Megatron smirked, watching his mouth go slack and hang open, a complete juxtaposition to the handsome face he normally wore.

Before he himself could drop off, Starscream started to twitch.

"Skyfire..."

"Starscream," Megatron murmured softly, knowing he should wake him. "Starscream, you're dreaming-"

Starscream mumbled, shaking his helm at whatever was happening. He turned his face into Megatron's chest, breathing fast and panicked. Megatron had seen him face all manner of horrors in their time together, but nothing in war had ever made him react like this.

"It's not real, Starscream." He stroked his helm, from temple to jaw, trying to soothe him. It didn't help, Starscream's claws pricked his chest and his face screwed up.

"You're with me." He reminded him, touching his cheek. "You're not alone."

It seemed to work. The tension drained away. Breathing evened out. Starscream's claws retracted. A soft contented sigh escaped when Megatron stroked a thumb across his cheek. He was still and soft once more. Feeling a sense of satisfaction, Megatron settled back, keeping him close lest further dreams plague him.

He may be crippled and useless, but he could protect Starscream from this at least.

 

* * *

 

 "You were dreaming again last night."

Starscream was still rubbing his optics of dust that may have accumulated over night as he recharged. He made a noncommittal noise, but then he never was particularly vocal first thing in the morning.

"What was it about?" Megatron pressed, unsubspacing fuel to drink.

"Don't remember," Starscream shrugged, still fuzzy optic'd and slumping. Megatron handed him the fuel next. For once he drank it without pulling stupid faces, too sleep-muddled to have activated his taste sensors probably.

"It sounded like you were having a nightmare."

"This _is_ a nightmare." Starscream muttered and started to get up. "I was probably defragmenting memories of yesterday."

"And you thought of Skyfire much yesterday?"

Starscream paused, shoulders stiff. Megatron thought he was going to turn around and throw something at him, tell him to mind his own business. The tense moment passed. He shrugged and said with forced nonchalance, "No, not really."

"That's a load of slag-"

"What do you care anyway!" Starscream yelled, whipping around, brandishing a shovel he found from Primus-knew-where. "It was before you- before the war. Before any of this. It doesn't matter-"

"It seems to matter a great deal to you."

"No it doesn't. I don't care about him. I don't care about what happened. I don't care that I left him for dead. And I _don't care_ that he's prancing about being an _Autobot_ because he can't _stand me_!"

"Starscream,"

"It's. Fine." Starscream snarled, denta glinting in the low light. " _He's_ fine. I didn't mourn him for millions of years for him to just pop back up again like nothing had ever happened- except _it did_ happen! For me! He- he doesn't- he doesn't _care_ what I went through because as far as he's concerned, _I've_ changed, I'm 'not the mech he once knew'. Like _anyone's the same after four million years of **hell**!"_

His voice rose to a bellow and he threw the shovel down. It bounced off the floor with a sprang of metal.

He stormed out, tripping over objects and not even stopping to curse about it. Megatron watched him go, saying nothing. Even in a dark shed at dawn he'd been able to see the moisture gathering in the ducts of Starscream's optics.

He sat and waited, and after ten minutes or so Starscream came back in, still miserable and grumpy.

Megatron began to stand.

"No, I'll do it!" Starscream snapped, his voice sounding a little thick. "Don't kill yourself, old mech."

"Thank you." Megatron found it in him to say when Starscream helped him stand.

Starscream just nodded, slung his arm over his shoulders, and they were on their way again.

 

* * *

 

They lapsed into a stifling silence and Megatron didn't know what to say to make it better. He commented on the weather, the trees, the calls of distant birds, even the shapes of the clouds, anything to get Starscream thinking about something other than what was keeping that frown on his face.

"That one looks like you," he said, nudging Starscream and digging his heel in to get them to stop, pointing up at one particular cloud that was really just a fat circle with parts resembling legs and a helm.

Despite himself, Starscream looked.

"It does not!" He yelled indignantly, "Where are my arms? My wings?"

"I think you know where your wings are."

Starscream's denta were audibly grinding together. He thrust his arm out, pointing to another cloud. "Then that looks like you."

It was cloud vaguely resembling a humanoid shape, with only three limbs. It was missing a leg. Starscream had probably wanted to goad him, but he just laughed.

"I suppose it does."

Starscream's cheeks were pink and his lips pouting. "You're getting weirder everyday." He muttered, starting them off again and dragging Megatron along with him. "It's probably the infection. We'll get back to base and Hook will diagnose you with processor deterioration and when they realise how _useless_ you are, _no one_ will stop me from dumping you in the ocean."

"One would wonder why you'd bother wasting so much time and energy in bringing a lost cause such a long way."

Starscream's lips pressed together.

Further attempts at cloud spotting were hindered by Starscream's unwillingness to participate. He didn't even laugh at the one inconspicuously shaped like a spike.

 

* * *

 

They found another town. Megatron wasn't sure if Starscream had lost the self-preservation to avoid humans or if his unwillingness to avoid barns and farm storage sheds was just so strong he was risking it anyway. It was late, their days growing longer because the distance they could cover had so drastically shortened.

Megatron glanced at his tarp covered leg, then Starscream's determined face, and for the hundredth time wondered why he was bothering.

They ended up in an alleyway and Starscream set him on a dumpster. It bowed inwards from his weight and Megatron leant back against the wall, uncaring if it broke. Starscream surveyed the area like he was on a recon mission, his optics flicking through filters as he scanned the surrounding areas for suitable lodgings.

His breath caught.

"What is it?" Megatron asked.

Starscream didn't answer at first. "...Nothing."

Megatron knew him well enough to tell when he was lying. He began to stand.

"Sit down," Starscream hissed, pushing on his shoulder. "it's nothing, it just... There's a car wash."

"A car wash." Megatron repeated.

"A drive through car wash." Starscream's voice turned wistful. His shoulders seemed to slump, "With warm water and soap-"

Megatron shuttered his optics, "Yes, the stuff fantasies are made of."

Starscream picked up on his sarcasm. He grew defensive. "I _like_ being clean."

"Everyone does."

Starscream looked up him and down, "Could have fooled me."

Megatron exhaled heavily. If he had had any confidence his own leg could hold up against possible retaliation he would have risen to slap Starscream around the back of the helm by now. "I'll remember this insolence."

"Oh, I'm terrified. I live in constant fear of that leg finally dropping off so you'll have something to beat me over the head with." Starscream cocked a hip and smirked.

Megatron met his gaze, and began to stand.

Misreading his intentions, Starscream took an alarmed step back, servos open. "Wait. Are we fighting?"

"No," Megatron growled, and reached for him, gesturing his need for help. "We're going to that car wash."

Starscream instinctively took his servo, pulling him up and taking his weight as he hopped on his good leg to rebalance himself. "Why?"

"To use it."

"We can't-"

"Why ever not?" Megatron tried to nudge Starscream along, out of their alleyway hiding place. "There's no one around."

"I- I'm not a car!"

"I'm sure we'll fit."

"We'll?" Starscream missed the curb and stumbled, almost taking them both down. "You're-?"

"Coming too?" Megatron snorted, "Of course I am. Look at me."

He was of course, referring to his leg more than anything, still sticky under the armour with energon and grim. And rust. His grey was browned with mud and spectacled in dirt. Starscream, being brighter in colour, should look worse off, yet he had some sort of supernatural ability to repel dirt.

Whereas Megatron felt like he only attracted it.

"Fine." Starscream snapped, "But I'm going first."

Megatron snorted again. "What are you talking about. We're going in together. I need you to keep me upright, remember?"

Starscream's face lost colour then suddenly regained it again. Megatron could imagine why. He clearly had some issue with being soaking wet and covered in soap suds in a warm confined space with _him_.

Megatron didn't blame him for being cautious. If he was after a second kiss from the seeker, a car wash was certainly a setting romantic enough to make his move.

 


	7. Chapter 7

Starscream looked at the moving conveyor and all the swinging machinery and felt strangely glad he didn't have his wings. This so called 'drive thru car wash' looked more than capable of ripping them off.

"I've changed my mind." He said, "I don't want to go first."

Megatron was looking at the machine with a frown, probably thinking much the same as him- if they became stuck and the humans called the Autobots, what awful joke was Optimus Prime going to torture them with while they worked to untwine them?

Starscream couldn't even imagine.

"It should be fine." Megatron said, his tone far from inspiring. "You want to be clean? It's this, or a cold backyard hose."

Starscream considered getting hosed down like a filthy dog and decided it might be worth risking life and limb in the terrifying car wash after all. He stepped onto the conveyor. It moved him along and dragged an unbalanced Megatron with him.

Megatron stumbled, and fearing he was about to careen sideways into the huge spinning _thing_ spraying sudsy water everywhere, Starscream caught him and yanked him upright.

Their chests clanged together just as the first sprays of water hit them and then Starscream was far too concerned with himself to bother with his leader. He gasped in surprise as high pressure nozzles fired chemicals into crevasses he hadn't even known he possessed. It was warm at least, and floral scented, but that was the only positive thing he had to say about it.

It was, frankly, an ordeal, and Starscream briefly wondered, as he suffered the indignity of brushes coming at him from all angles, if they Autobots enjoyed this in their vehicle modes? If they perversely allowed this molestation from a fleshling designed insentient machine? Another brush bore down on him from above and he shrieked in indignity, ducking to try and escape it.

Somewhere to his left and above the noise of the machinery he could hear Megatron's breathless laughter.

"It's not funny!" Starscream yelled, swiping for him and catching only air. He couldn't see anything with all the chemicals in his optics. "Where are you?!"

He shook the suds from his optics in a reprieve and saw a wet Megatron, _not_ on the conveyor, but outside the machinery, leaning against the wall with his bad leg raised. He was wearing an amused smirk, and really, Starscream shouldn't have been so surprised he'd trick him into testing out the torture machine alone.

"You-!" His threat was lost to another series of spraying nozzles. He lifted his servos and tried to bat the water away.

He spied the exit and was about to storm out of the tunnel of horror, when blasts of hot air came down on him. This time he did fall over.

"Megatron!" He yelled, too harried to care that he was calling for the very mech laughing at his predicament. "Help!"

The driers stopped. Starscream looked up to see Megatron stood next to the off switch, his amusement forgotten. "Are you alright?" He's asked, hobbling at speed around the outside to reach him.

Starscream was annoyed at being so easily defeated by what was essentially a large hair dryer. "I'm fine " he muttered, pushing himself to his pedes. His frame was dry at least, armour hot and clean, sparkling white in places.

"I should have known it was a trick." He muttered.

Now that he knew he was alright, Megatron was unrepentant once again. "You were far too willing to put yourself through that."

"I didn't think it would be that bad." He muttered, glaring hatefully at the machinery as he stepped off the conveyor and back onto solid tarmac. "Don't those fleshlings have any respect for their vehicles?"

"I don't imagine fleshling machinery has much dignity too lose." Megatron reminded him. He lifted an arm, indicating his need for help. "We should go."

Starscream didn't take his arm just yet, considered his leader's wet but still filthy frame in proximity to his own perfect bodywork. He hadn't just gone through all _that_ to let Megatron mess him again, had he?

He spied a bucket and cleaning supplies off to the side of the conveyor track.

"Sit down." He smirked, moving to collect them. "We're not done yet."

 

* * *

 

Megatron had tried to escape but he only had one good leg and Starscream was faster anyway.

Defeated, he sat on the floor of the car wash's tunnel, arms folded like a petulant youngling as Starscream knelt behind him and scrubbed down his back, using a bucket of chemicals and a large sponge. He cringed and tensed when Starscream moved around to his side.

"Lift your arm."

"I can do this myself." He growled, but lifted his arm anyway.

"Not to my standards." Starscream told him, working in circles down his arm and up again, before moving to the other side and repeating the same. "I have no faith in your ability to take care of yourself. _How_ you've survived so long-"

"I know how to take care of myself." Megatron scoffed.

" _Soundwave_ knows how to take care of you." Starscream arched a brow at the scowl that deepened on Megatron's face. He was only so annoyed because it was true. "You have your talents, Megatron, I'll admit that, but self-maintenance is not one of them."

He moved towards his front, and rather than lean over Megatron's spread thighs to get to his chest, Starscream swung a leg over his lap, straddling him. Megatron blinked, servos twitching at his sides because he suddenly didn't know what else to do with them.

"Tilt your helm back." Starscream ordered, tipping Megatron's chin up so he could get between the wires and cables of his neck.

"What talents would those be?" Megatron asked when he regained the ability to think, shifting and wincing a little when he moved his bad leg.

Starscream paused in his work. "The humans call it 'pigheadedness'."

Megatron lowered his helm to glare at him. Starscream pushed it back again. "Stop moving. You're like a sparkling, honestly."

Megatron's scowl deepened, but with his helm angled back he was only doing it at the ceiling. "I'll have you know my talents go _far_ beyond 'pigheadedness'."

"And what would those be?" Starscream moved the sponge down to his chest, scrubbing extra hard at the insignia, bringing it back to a vivid proud purple.

"Use your imagination." Megatron purred.

Starscream should have slapped him around the face with the sponge to get the self satisfied look off his face. He didn't. He moved down, skipping over Megatron's hips and pelvis and going straight for his thighs, and finally the injured leg.

He set the sponge aside and untied the tarp. Megatron tensed, expecting it to hurt.

"I'll be gentle." Starscream sneered, taking the sponge again. He _was_ gentle, letting the chemicals do their job without adding pressure. They seeped in between the seams of Megatron's armour, working to dissolve the muck left behind under there.

It stung a little, but Megatron set his jaw and said nothing. Starscream murmured an apology anyway, touching his wrist in an instinctive motion to soothe.

 

* * *

 

Starscream took his time bathing Megatron. He was a mess. Filth everywhere. Twigs stuck in crevices. Treads full of mud. The majority of the dirt was scrubbed away relatively quickly, so he may have taken a few moments for himself, just running the sponge up and down Megatron's chest with the excuse of having 'missed a few spots'.

Megatron was watching him though, optics following his servo as it dragged the wet sponge over his chest, squeezing it to release excess chemicals. They tracked down his torso, his hips, his codpiece...

"Done," he tore his gaze from Megatron's impressive frame and tossed the sponge away.

Megatron blew out hot air like he'd been holding his breath, shoulders slumping. He sounded disappointed when he said, "Already?"

Starscream ignored the stupid little flutter in his tanks and left his leader to fetch the hose, dragging it over and giving it to Megatron with a suggestion that he. "Rinse, or you'll be speckled."

Megatron took it with a sigh and got to work. Starscream turned his back on him and considered some of the chemicals on the shelves, wondering how subspar they were to their Cybertronian equivalents- or trying to. His minds eye struggled to rid itself of a sudsy wet Megatron...

He didn't struggle for long though, as he realised zero point two seconds later -when a spray of water drenched his back- why no mech should ever turn their back on Megatron. He must have jumped a foot in the air, a cry bursting from his vocaliser and echoing through the empty lot at the shock of it.

"Megatron!"

Despite having just potentially given them away, Megatron smirked stupidly at him.

"What are you, an infant?" Starscream snatched the hose off him and sprayed him back. "Quick, get under the heater. We should go."

"Spoilsport," Megatron grumbled, groaning as Starscream helped haul him to his pedes.

Starscream groaned too. Either Megatron was getting heavier, or the organic fuel, lacking in the vital materials, was making them weaker. Another thing to worry about. Great.

Megatron hobbled under the heater and tilted his helm back. The blasts of hot air didn't send him tipping over, even with his bad leg- his centre of gravity being lower down than Starscream's top heavy frame. Seeing an opportunity, Starscream sidled up next to him, gripping him to prevent his own loss of balance.

Megatron glanced at the servo on his arm, but said nothing. Starscream rested his cheek against his shoulder, just briefly, enjoying that, for once, Megatron wasn't the only source of heat.

 

* * *

 

Abandoned, weak, injured, and weaponless on an alien planet filled to the brim with enemies was hardly the place for fraternisation. Or that was what Starscream kept telling himself every time Megatron glanced at him with soft optics, or hummed contently when they huddled together at night.

Nothing more had come from that brief, bizarre moment, under the stars and in the cold.

He should be glad of it. The last thing he wanted to add to this ordeal was a conflict of interest regrading Megatron. Once they returned to the _Nemesis_ and everything was again as it should be, he hoped never to speak of this ever again.

And Soundwave could shove whatever stupid debrief he would inevitably try to make him fill out. He wasn't going into details about how he and Megatron kept each other alive and fuelled and warm.

He glanced resentfully at the huge mech leaning on his shoulder, watching the warmth from his vents curl in the frigid morning air.

"We're not going in water again." Megatron repeated himself.

They were stood on the bank of a river. It was frothing and white where the current crashed against unseen rocks. It was wide, it looked deep. It would be cold. Starscream's armour locked together just at the thought it of.

"Then how do we proceed, oh wise leader?"

"Find a way around-"

"There won't _be_ a way around for miles." Starscream glared. Megatron was so ignorant and naive when it came to this planet and it's geography. "A river this size doesn't just stop somewhere and you're _heavy_ -"

"Then what?" Megatron's temper was beginning to fray. His mood had been moving up and down swiftly these past few days. "What do you expect me to do? Sit back and let you dive in after what happened last time-?"

Starscream's cheeks felt hot. "Nothing happened last time!"

"You're delusional." Megatron sneered, and the tone made Starscream want to drop the big arrogant oaf. "You had a panic attack. You nearly _drowned_ -"

"No, I didn't!"

"You're _not_ going in!" Megatron bellowed. "And that is final."

Finally having enough, Starscream shoved Megatron's arm off his shoulder, giving him a push in hopes he stumbled and fell over. He did stumble, but stayed upright, expression furious, looking like he wanted more than anything to shove back.

Starscream smirked, glancing at his bad leg. "And how are you going to stop me?"

He placed a thruster on the rivers man-made bank, wanting to wind Megatron up more than anything.

"Don't. You. Dare." Megatron's voice dropped, low and quiet for all the menace it held. Starscream hesitated a little at the sound of it.

He crammed the old fear down and swung a leg over the bank, sitting on it, ready to drop over the edge into the crashing white water. He'd been in water far deeper. The _Nemesis_ lay on the ocean floor after all, and the amount of times Skywarp had pushed him through the airlock as a joke...

"Starscream." Megatron's voice was suddenly soft, uncharacteristically so.

Starscream glanced at Megatron guilty, knowing he was going to regret looking at him.

"Please," Megatron looked as old and weary as he ever had. He gestured with an open servo. "We'll find another way over."

Please, huh? That was a first.

Starscream ignored all the fluttering sensations in his chest and swung his legs back over, keeping his helm low. "Alright, stop fussing." He muttered, acting as exasperated as he could. "But if we don't-"

"We will." Megatron promised, limping forward and seizing him by the wrist. It wasn't a punishing grip, more a desperate one. Starscream didn't shake him off.

"Come on then, scrap heap," he said playfully, slinging Megatron's arm over his shoulder again, warmth pressing against his side. "Lets go."

 

* * *

 

There was a bridge. Not the first one they'd come across, but certainly the most useful.

The problem with fleshling designed bridges was that most came with weight limits. Starscream weighed over twenty tonnes alone. Megatron must be more. Walking together, they needed something sturdier than a quiet little pedestrian bridge.

A few hours found them in front of _this_ bridge, high above the river and supported by strong iron beams and cables. It had a road either side. 

But it was in use.

Starscream watched from the tree line, counting the vehicles that crossed. An average of one every thirty five seconds. He could not haul Megatron across in anywhere near that time, even running. They'd be seen, and not even in the relative camouflage of the forests.

"Still think this is the more sensible idea?" Starscream muttered.

Megatron kicked out at his legs in annoyance. "We'll wait till dark. Humans don't travel by night."

"Yes they do. You don't know anything." Starscream muttered. "But we will be less noticeable in the dark."

Which left them a few hours of doing nothing while they waited. Starscream continue to watch the vehicles. Trucks, cars, bikes, typically dirty mud dwelling machines. They were all unimaginatively coloured. Black, silver, red; blue, if he was lucky. One yellow car shot by and for a brief moment he'd thought it was that awful little Autobot, Bumblebee.

But no.

Just a human with a hideously painted car.

"What's this?"

Starscream turned at Megatron's voice. He was still on the floor and appeared to have picked something up. He was holding it between his thumb and forefinger. It was a pinecone.

"A thing." Starscream explained by not explaining, plucking it from his grasp and flicking it away.

Little good that did. Megatron lifted up another one. "They're everywhere."

Starscream tilted his helm back and sighed with exasperation. "It's a pinecone."

"What does it do?"

Starscream's denta clenched together. "I don't know."

"You don't know?" Megatron repeated, amused, "I thought you knew every-"

"It's impossible to know everything. I was here _once_ before and they didn't have this stuff around then. Just-" he gestured vaguely. "Rocks and snow."

Megatron bounced the pinecone in his servo. "I think I'll keep it." He slipped the tiny object into his subspace.

"As a souvenir?" Starscream sneered, "to remind yourself of these happy memories?"

"To remind myself of a time when you admitted to not knowing something."

"I know more than you at least." Starscream muttered under his breath, whipping back around and staring at the bridge again. "It's dark enough." He decided, the occasional car that zoomed by had it's headlights on. "Lets go."

He waited until it was silent, void of the rushing air that came from speeding cars, before hustling Megatron along and onto the bridge. Oblivious for the need for haste, Megatron let himself be distracted by the view, veering towards the edge of the bridge so he could peer over it.

"Stop it!" Starscream hissed yanking him back again. "Quickly."

"Will you calm down. There's no one coming." Megatron reassured him.

And the universe, just to prove stupid old Megatron wrong, decided to summon a pair of headlights, out of seemingly nowhere.

"Quick!" Starscream squeaked, dragging him along. The headlights brightened and turned in their direction. "Megatron move!"

They weren't fast enough. The vehicle must have seen them by now. There was a whine as it slowed, wheels crunching in the ice. Break lights flashed red as it came to a stop. With a furious hiss, Starscream shunted Megatron behind him, getting ready to kick the car off the bridge so no human would survive to go tattling to Autobots.

It was an old truck, and it's door creaked loudly as it swung open. A man stepped out, aged with messy greying hair and a thick wooly coat. There was someone in the passenger seat. A smaller silhouette. Starscream hoped for it's sake it would be wise enough to run when it saw what Starscream did to it's companion.

"Hey there!" The fleshling called up to him, sounding friendly, completely ignorant to the fact that most humans would be running away screaming at the sight of Decepticons. "Aren't you them Autobots?"

Starscream blinked. The old man came around in front of his truck, squinting up at them in the dark. He noticed Megatron's slumped position over Starscream's shoulder, because he asked. "You need some help?" He thumped the hood of his truck. "I can give you's a lift?"

A lift?

Megatron opened his stupid mouth. "We are not Auto-"

"Help?" Starscream repeated loudly over the top of him, forced smile in place as he _oh so subtly_ covered the Decepticon insignia on Megatron's chest with his splayed servo. "We'd appreciate it greatly."

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These humans are in for the WORST Christmas miracle...


	8. Chapter 8

The old man introduced himself as Hank, and the small human, who had been summoned out of the truck's cab shortly afterwards, was his 'grandson', James.

James was 'nine', something he was excited to tell them. It seemed an awfully small number to Starscream, but then he supposed humans didn't last very long. Big organic eyes stared up at him and Megatron, adoring and awed. This must be how they looked at 'saint' Prime.

 _He_ must love the attention. It was making Starscream feel uneasy.

"Are you aliens?" The small child asked them.

"Yes." Starscream answered, because he didn't trust Megatron to speak. They were waiting for the old man to clear out the back of his truck, making room so Starscream could throw Megatron into it and take a break from bearing his weight.

"Can't leave you out here on Christmas Eve," Hank had insisted, "'sides, towns not five miles from here-"

Hank liked to talk a lot. Starscream knew that from just five minutes of standing in the middle of the bridge watching him frantically try to accommodate them. His grandson seemed to have inherited the same trait.

"Do you believe in Santa?" The child bounced with excitement.

"Who?!" Megatron demanded, a little too gruffly for someone speaking to a cowardly little human. The child's eyes widened even further.

"Eh, no." Starscream nudged Megatron reproachfully. "We don't."

"He's bringing me a car."

A whole car?! For a child. No wonder these humans didn't last very long. They were letting nine year olds operate heavy machinery.

"A toy car." Hank called from the back of the truck, recognising the poleaxed look on Starscream's face. "If he's good."

"Can you transform?"

"Not right now." Starscream admitted pettishly.

The child didn't catch the hint that he was reluctant to talk about it. "What do you turn into? A car? A bus?"

"A bus?!" Starscream snarled indignantly. "Do I _look_ like-?"

"He's a plane." Megatron cut in before he could get any further, "He transforms into a fighter jet. He lost his wings."

"Oh." The child looked sad, and Starscream had no idea why this small fleshling would empathise with an alien it had just met. Humans were ridiculous creators. "Sorry about your wings."

"I'll get them back." Starscream reassured him.

There was a bang of metal as the old man finished clearing out the truck. He nodded. "Wanna get in?"

Megatron looked reluctant, but Starscream was far too happy with the potential reprieve from carrying him. He dragged him around to the back of the truck.

"I don't care about your dignity," he muttered in Megatron's audial, quietly so the humans couldn't hear. "Get in the truck. Shut your mouth. And don't _blow this_ for us."

Megatron wasn't any happier with the situation, but even he knew the time for stubborn pride had long since passed. These humans were stupid and trusting and worst of all, kind. And they were the best they were going to get out here.

 

* * *

 

It took closer to ten minutes to get to the old man's house, so Starscream was already annoyed. His thrusters ached to the point where every step caused a sharp stab of pain up his heel. In front of him, Megatron's helm had thunked back against the roof of the truck's cab. He looked asleep.

It took all of Starscream's self control not to pick up a rock and throw it at him.

The old man lived in a large house outside of the actual town, down a winding road framed with lots of trees that probably looked beautiful in the summer. The house itself shone like a beacon in the middle of nowhere, light steaming from every window, cartoonish figures decorating the lawn; things like snowmen and giant candy and everything was red and green. Starscream was disturbed.

The truck pulled up outside a garage, and Starscream strolled up to Megatron and flicked him in the head.

He woke with a jolt, shaking the entire vehicle violently.

"Can't fit you in the house." The old man said, scratching his head and looking between them and the front door like he'd only just realised that. "But the garage is heated. If you don't mind staying in there?"

Starscream was about to explain that the garage was more than sufficient if it was warm, when the front door opened.

"Grandma! Grandma!" The child started running towards the figure emerging from the doorway. "Come look at the robots we found!"

 _Robots_? Starscream sneered.

"Oh my-" the 'grandma' person was an elderly women in an apron. She looked more alarmed than impressed. For the sake of not being turned away, Starscream did his best to look as un-intimidating as possible.

The old man went rushing up to her, taking her hand and speaking quietly. It was a long discussion, and the small child quickly grew bored of it, running back over to them just as Starscream began pulling his exhausted leader back to his feet.

"What happened to him?"

Starscream glared at the child, but Megatron, surprisingly, answered.

"I'm injured."

"Were you attacked?" The child asked excitedly, because there was no greater joy than the idea of giant robots hitting each other apparently, "Was it the des- the deceptions?"

"De- _cep_ -ti- _cons_." Starscream corrected with an angry hiss.

"No." Megatron rolled his optics. "There was an accident."

"Oh," the boy didn't look so impressed anymore. "Are you married?"

Starscream nearly dropped Megatron. "Are we _what_?!"

"My moms are married." The child explained.

What the Pit did that have to do with anything?!

"We don't get married," Megatron explained, uncharacteristically patient, probably because he was too tried to be annoyed.

"That's... really sad." The child said earnestly,

Starscream was about to say 'not for us', when again, Megatron was only too happy to humour the human spawn. "We have a different form of union, one not so easily dissolved by time or broken by law."

The child looked utterly clueless but nodded anyway. Before he and Megatron could get any friendlier though, the adult humans had finished talking. The old woman had gone back inside, but curtains in the windows were twitching. The old man approached them, ruffling his grandson's hair.

"Go on inside now," he said, sending the child on it's way. "Sorry about that." He stared up at them sheepishly. "Not every day we get... your sort round here."

Starscream stowed his offence at being referred to 'your sort' and nodded, rolling his shoulder where Megatron had leant against it to shift his weight. "Understandable." He said, trying not to sneer.

The old man nodded and pressed a button on a remote to open the garage doors. Inside was more than big enough to for them both, even with a medium sized boat occupying half of it. The human rushed in ahead of them, pushing a few boxes to the side to make even more room.

"Now, I know it's not the four seasons-"

"It'll be fine." Starscream reassured him, again. Fleshlings and their fussing. How did the Autobots cope?

Megatron lowered himself to the ground gratefully, wincing. The fleshling noticed.

"I can get you some blankets? Another heater. Make you more comfortable."

Starscream nodded, more concerned with Megatron. He knelt to untie the tarp, but Megatron caught his wrist, mouth opening-

"It's-"

"It is _not_ fine." Starscream snarled, wondering why he was doing this again. "Let go."

Megatron seemed reluctant, but did, looking away when Starscream peeled the tarp away.

Starscream swallowed thickly. The rust was back, and the seams were leaking energon again. He looked around futility for something to wipe it away.

"Here." Said a voice from below.

The old man was small and moved quietly and Starscream nearly jumped out of his armour when he appeared between his legs. He was holding up a towel. Starscream snatched it off him, too stressed to remember to be nice.

"Don't stand there." He muttered, wondering why humans thought it was acceptable to always be underpede.

The man said an apology and something vague about getting more blankets, closing the garage door with the remote before disappearing up some stairs leading into the house.

"You think you could make the effort to be a grateful guest?" Megatron asked him, watching him lazily as he dabbed at his leg.

"Why? So he doesn't kick us out? I'd like to see him try." Starscream had cleared away enough energon to see the problem. One of the welds had split. He growled in annoyance. "How did this happen?"

Megatron said nothing.

"I can't believe we've resorted to taking the charity of fleshlings." Starscream continued, wanting to vent about _something_ and feeling too anxious about Megatron's injury relapse to take it out on him.

"You're the one that accepted his offer."

"Yes, because _someone_ here moves at the same record breaking speed as a _cosmic snail_!"

The door to the house opened again and the human was back, carrying bundles of blankets and sheets. With him was another human. Female. Middle aged. Her eyes were massive as she stared at them, almost tripping down the stairs she was so busy staring at them to see where she was going.

"Here her go," the old man said, placing them on the ground with a satisfied noise. "This should do ya."  
  
The human female followed suit, her hands a little shaky.

Starscream paid her no mind, nodding at the man. "Good."

"Your optics-" It was a female that spoke. Starscream glanced at her. She was looked pale. Her voice shook. "-they're red?"

Oh. Oh dear.

"Yes," he said, expression betraying nothing, "They can change colour. Depending on mood, temperature-"

"Allegiance?" She interrupted, brow creasing.

Starscream heard Megatron's servo creak as it curled into a fist. He laid his hand over it, stilling him. "You humans are always so keen on judging by appearance."

The women flushed, and the old man, presumably her father, nudged her roughly and laughed. "She doesn't mean anything by it." He diffused. "Anything I can get you? I feel awful guilty leaving you in here on Christmas Eve. I'd offer you turkey, but I don't think that'd go down well."

Starscream smiled stiffly. "Whatever you fuel your vehicles with will do fine."

The man bustled about collecting a jerry can, it seemed he had plenty stored away for his boat. The suspicious woman meanwhile, slipped back upstairs. Megatron stared after her. Starscream could tell he was worried.

"It's fine." He reassured him quietly, "Calm down."

Megatron didn't look convinced, but was smart enough to keep quiet until after the old man had blathered and joked and fussed over them. Starscream responded to his questions with closed answers, and soon enough he got the hint that they wanted to be alone.

He wished them a 'merry Christmas', offered to turn the lights out, and let the door click behind him when he closed it.

Megatron began to stand.

"No." Starscream gripped his shoulders and pinned him back against the wall. "I need to patch up for your leg, idiot. You're leaking-"

"In case you haven't noticed." Megatron hissed, gripping his wrists. "We have a security breach-"

"It's fine-"

"She _knows_ we're not Autobots, fool!"

"I know." Starscream said flippantly, "which is why I'm going to go out and cut the phone lines, make sure she can't make any calls."

Megatron nodded. "Then do it. Now."

Starscream shoved him a little, "Don't tell me what to do. I'm not leaving you until I've fixed this-"

"I'll be fine-"

"Maybe it's not _you_ I'm worried about." Starscream muttered, "I step one foot outside and the next thing I know you'll have levelled this entire building to the ground."

Megatron snorted. "It would certainly solve the problem."

"Yes, and when the rest of the town sees the smoke and hears the screaming?"

Megatron shut up, but he didn't look happy about it.

 

* * *

 

 

There were enough tools in the garage, plus what he had in his subspace, for Starscream to patch Megatron back up again. But by then, thanks to energon loss and thick headedness, Megatron was fairly loopy afterward, helm lolling back against the wall, a funny look on his face as he watched Starscream clean his digits of energon.

"Stop looking at me like that." He warned.

Megatron blinked slowly, "What else is there to look at?"

Starscream picked up one of the thick blankets and draped it over Megatron's head so he didn't have to look at him. He needed to go out and sabotage the human's attempts at contacting the authorities now, like he had promised. Outside the ground was hard and icy, and it was snowing again. Thick, fluffy flakes of it.

Behind him, Megatron finally figured out how to get the blanket back off his helm.

Starscream sighed, snatching up the jerry can. "Drink this, stupid."

He watched his leader take a swig, and slipped a digit under the can to keep it at his lips. "All of it." He said, and shook out the blanket so he could lay it over Megatron's legs, keep them warm.

"Are you sure you're not married?" A young voice asked from the door.

Starscream jumped again, biting down on his glossa at the sudden appearance of the fleshling young. "What are you doing in here!? Go away!"

The child wasn't much deterred by his tone. He jumped down the steps two at a time, feet slapping against the flooring. Starscream wished he could just flick it away without consequences.

"My mom gets sick sometimes," the child said when he reached the bottom step. He was holding a toy plane, presumably because he wanted to show them it. "And my other mom takes care of her. Like you guys!" 

"We're _not **married**_." Starscream didn't know why he had to explain that anymore than once.

Megatron, having replaced the fuel he'd lost, had come around enough to find it funny. A smirk was pulling at his mouth. "Well-"

"Shut up, you." Starscream muttered, and waved a servo at the child, "and you, go. Go on, shoo."

"You argue like my moms."

Starscream looked around to see if there was something he could use to poke the child back up the stairs, so he didn't actually have to touch him.

He was saved from potentially coming into contact with organic germs when a harried sounding female voice started calling for him inside the house. Without another word he rushed up the stairs again, letting the door slam behind him and leaving the two Decepticons staring in his wake.

"I really do hate fleshlings." Starscream voiced.

Something touched his lower back, and he turned to see Megatron reaching for him. "And here I thought you'd made a friend."

Starscream snorted, brushing his touch away, knowing what he wanted. "You stay here-"

"Where are you going?" Megatron frowned.

"To cut the phone wires."

Megatron began to push up from the floor, carefully arranged blankets falling off his frame. Starscream hissed, waving at the air to get him to sit down again, trying to readjust them. "What are you doing?"

"I'm coming-"

"Like pit -"

"I can manage." Megatron said, darkly, obviously still loopy.

"No, _I_ can manage. _You_ will sit here on your rusting aft."

"It's starting to snow."

"So?"

Megatron's gaze softened. "Starscream..."

"I told you to stop looking at me like that!"

Megatron didn't stop. "When are we going to talk about this?"

Starscream looked determinately in the other direction. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"For all your talk of me being stubborn and ignoring limitations, you're doing a rather good job of giving me a taste of my own medicine, don't you think? I worry about you, Starscream-"

Starscream snorted, loud and obnoxious. "No you _don't_ -"

"-almost as much as you seem to worry about me-"

"Now that's going too far!" Starscream stamped his thruster. "You know fragging well I don't give a scrap about you. You can roll over and _die_ for all I care. In fact, It's a frequent fantasy of mine-"

Megatron shot a look at the door, "Perhaps you shouldn't yell."

"I'll yell all I want!" Starscream bellowed. "How dare you say that. How dare you pretend to care about me-"

"I _do_ care about you, you stupid brat!" Megatron suddenly yelled back. "Despite how much you love to pretend the whole universe is against you-"

"Because it is!" Starscream clenched his denta together to fight back the tightness in his chest.

"Well I'm not." Megatron declared, jabbing a thumb at his own chest. "Get back over here-"

Starscream wiped his nose with the back of his servo, sniffing quickly, "I'm going-"

"It's cold and dark. You're not going anywhere." Megatron interrupted again. He lifted the sheet from around his shoulders, nodding his helm and pointing to the space next to him. "Here. Now. Or I swear by Primus, Starscream-"

"You'll what," Starscream snorted, mostly to cover up the wetness in his voice, but began walking towards him anyway. "Rust on me?"

Megatron didn't reply. It took Starscream a while to cross the garage and reach Megatron's side, footsteps shuffling, fearing retribution.

When Megatron didn't reach out and try to throttle him, he deemed it safe enough to sit down. Any distance he tried to leave between them was thwarted when Megatron seized the edge of his hip plating and used it to drag him across the floor. His aft scraped and left a red streak. He muttered angrily but Megatron simply threw an arm and the blanket around him, a position familiar to them now.

"Brat."

"Moron."

The arm around him squeezed. Starscream didn't want to think about how nice it felt.

"Do you think the Autobots will come?" He asked quietly.

Megatron shrugged against him. "We'll leave before dawn." He promised.

Starscream stuttered his optics, hoping that would be enough.

 


	9. Chapter 9

Starscream couldn't remember falling asleep, but when he onlined his optics and turned his helm, he found himself staring at Megatron's insignia. He didn't bother moving further. He was warm, cozy, there were blankets under and around them. Megatron was breathing slowly, and Starscream found himself rising up with his powerful chest on every intake.

His gaze flicked upwards, and found two crimson optics staring back at him.

He blinked.

"You're awake." Megatron said.

"How long have you been watching me recharge?" Starscream frowned, thinking that was a little... weird.

"A few weeks." Megatron said, and Starscream had meant how long _tonight_. So now it was even weirder. He began to move.

"You can stay there." Megatron said. His servo settled on the small of Starscream's back. It pressed down, insistent, but it didn't need too. Starscream was comfortable, and Megatron smelt like gun oil and dirt. And oddly, that was okay.

Fingers on his back began to draw circles, light ghostlike touches. Starscream wanted to twist around have them run over his cockpit instead, have the softer sensor pads of Megatron's blunt digits drag across the glass. He shuddered.

"Cold?" Megatron pulled on the edge of a blanket. It went taunt over Starscream's shoulders.

"No," he murmured, turning his face so his lips brushed the armour of Megatron's chest. It was so dark with the lights off, he couldn't read the expression on Megatron's face. But the spark beneath his armour, pulsing strong and true, was steady, comforting.

Starscream let his own digits slip into the seams on Megatron's abdomen. He counted the panels absently, wondering if his touch felt as nice to Megatron as the fingers on his own back did.

"That night." He asked, thinking about the cold, the frigid wind, how unpleasant it had been sat on the hard ground with a stupid human Christmas movie playing. "Why did you kiss me?"

The servo on his back stilled. "Because I wanted to."

"You haven't kissed me since." Starscream focused on the dark shadows on the wall, wondering if that was a question he should have asked- if he wanted to know the answer.

There was a huff of amusement, the chest under his cheek rumbling. "You want to know why?"

Starscream nodded, looking towards Megatron again.

The servo on his back slid all the way up to his shoulders, then all the way back down again, thumb resting on the armour just inches above his aft. "Because if I gave into that urge I'd have done nothing _but_ kiss you."

Starscream felt warm all the way in his toe pedes. He poked an armour panel. "We're not doing anything else now..."

Megatron arched a brow, "Oh?"

Starscream rolled his optics, rising onto his forearms, "I have to do everything around here myself..."

Despite the feigned ignorance, Megatron's helm lifted, mouth parted receptively, his servo slipping down further and nudging Starscream forward. Starscream kissed him. Once. Quickly.

He drew back but Megatron followed, sitting upright and catching him around the middle before he could do much else to escape.

Megatron held him flush to his chest and for the first time in weeks Starscream wasn't just warm, he was hot, wallowing in the heat accumulating between them. Megatron kissed him fiercely, growling, a vibration low in his chest that ran straight through Starscream's layers of armour and shook his spark in it's very chamber. He made a weak noise, trying to concentrate on not getting so completely swamped by Megatron that he forgot he was in some fleshling garage-

"You're injured," he managed to breath when his mouth wasn't otherwise occupied. Megatron kissed him again, servo on the back of his neck and glossa slipping over his lips. He moaned like a well programmed pleasure drone, twitching when a big hand squeezed his aft.

"You're supposed to be injured-" he tried again.

Megatron grumbled something that sounded like he was saying he 'didn't fragging care', kissing him like a drowning mech, like every touch was his last-

Not far from the truth.

Starscream grabbed the back of his helm and yanked it back with great effort, putting a safe distance between their lips. "No," he panted, out of breath and numb lipped. "One of us has to use our processor. Your leg is bad enough-"

"You fixed it." Megatron murmured, trying to close in again. "That your only objection?"

Starscream veered back. "Any decent medic would have you off it for at least a month. We shouldn't."

Megatron looked like that fleshling child would have looked if he had been told Christmas was cancelled. He stroked at Starscream's armour, like he was trying to pet him into changing his mind. "I won't exert myself if you're on top."

"Nice try," Starscream stroked the back of his helm, sympathetic, but not stupid enough to cave. "It's not worth the risk-"

"You're worth the risk," Megatron breathed, tilting his helm to lean in.

Starscream pressed a servo to his face and shoved him away, annoyed. "And when the fleshlings walk in?"

"What'll they see?" Megatron smirked, smug and stupid. "Just moving parts. Machines."

"They're stupid, but not that stupid," Starscream growled, fending off another of Megatron's attempts to recapture him in a kiss.

"Just this then-" Megatron murmured, lips tickling his cheek. His digits stroked into the seams of Starscream's back. Any lower and they'd be on his aft, sneaking places they shouldn't be. He nuzzled his big helm against the side of Starscream's face, exhaling indulgently, nose squashed to his jaw.

Starscream's revolve weakened, though it had never been particularly strong in the first place.

He turned his helm and Megatron closed in with an approving noise, nipping his bottom lip to make him gasp and then taking advantage of it to slip him some glossa.

Starscream made a vaguely grumpy noise but didn't push him away. He made to sure to keep his weight on his knees and not on Megatron as his servos began to wander, stroking down powerful armour to touch Megatron intimately, boldly.

Megatron jumped when he touched his codpiece, then flinched when the motion had shifted his leg.

"Don't get too excited," Starscream reproached playfully, stroking his fingers into the warm seams of Megatron's panel. "Just let me do it."

Megatron's servos on his hips were tight, digits pressing against his armour hard enough to pinch. He was staring up at him intensely, jaw tight. "I'm not used to relinquishing control." He admitted.

"Don't I know it." Starscream snorted, but took one Megatron's servos from his hips and guided it around to his front, showing Megaton the pressure to use when he let his valve cover snap back so he could touch him.

A forefinger nudged his anterior node, swollen and damp, and a rumble of desire rose unbidden from Megatron's chest. The panel under Starscream's palm folded away and a warm spike began to push into it. Starscream began to stroke it, but he failed to concentrate much on technique in light of Megatron's skilled touch.

"Oh," he gasped, when Megatron parted his folds delicately, touching the yielding mesh like he thought it could tear with treatment any rougher.

Megatron brushed the sensor pad of his thumb through the wetness gathered there and then rubbed Starscream's node in a slow circular motion, so light to the touch that it made Starscream's hips jump forward for firmer contact. Megatron angled a finger and pushed it into him, and Starscream felt his face slacken with pleasure. The spike in his servo pulsed.

Megatron pulled out, then added a finger, and despite the slickness Starscream could feel there was resistance now. More than anything he wanted to tilt forwards and lower himself onto Megatron, but the modicum of sense he could still call upon reminded him that no amount of pleasure was worth knocking those repairs again.

Not to be outdone, he worked Megatron's spike, swiping his thumb over the tip and smearing the pre-fluid, dragging his grip up and down the shaft both slow and fast, watching Megatron's tired old face to know which felt best.

Megatron tipped forward and pushed his face against his chest, mouth dropping open to pant. Without any further warning his spike pulsed and shot ropes of fluid across Starscream's cockpit and hips. Warmth spilled down his knuckles.

The jerks of Megatron's frame carried through his fingers and Starscream moaned as he felt the surge of pleasurable clench and release that was his own overload. He stared at the ceiling, forgetting how to breath, Megatron mouthing at his exposed neck.

And then he came down again with a great shuddering breath.

He glanced back at Megatron's leg reflectively.

"It's fine." Megatron reassured, pulling the corner of the sheets up and wiping at some of the mess he'd left on Starscream. He nodded towards it, looking regretful, "I apologise for-"

Starscream waved him off, "It had to go somewhere," he took the sheet off Megatron and cleaned himself up, wiping the stickiness from between his digits too.

Megatron cast a furtive glance towards the door leading into the house. The light beneath it was still out, so it was safe to assume the humans were all asleep. Still, Starscream could understand his concern. They'd been... breathing rather loudly.

"We didn't wake them." Starscream muttered, but started wiping away the evidence a little faster. When he finished he threw the soiled sheet away. It hit the side of the boat. Starscream was sure fleshlings couldn't tell one mech fluid from another, so they'd probably just assume it was energon- or Cybertronian 'blood' when they found it.

Either way, they intended to be long gone before the fleshlings could question them about it.

Megatron settled back to the floor with a great sigh of satisfaction in being pillowed by so many cushioning fabrics. He folded his long arms behind his helm, looking every bit the cocky casanova. Starscream rolled his optics and instead bundled up a towel to shove under Megatron's leg, reminding the old fool that however virile he _thought_ the was, he was still literally falling apart.

"There." He said, patting Megatron's pede as he adjusted the leg just so. "Comfortable?"

Megatron's mouth twisted. "Actually-"

"Too bad," Starscream interrupted, shuffling to lay down next to him. "That's the best you're getting."

He angled his helm so It was brushing one of Megatron's shoulders and offlined his optics to the soothing rise and fall of the vents beside him. He wasn't all too surprised to hear a grunt and huff from Megatron as he rose to make himself more comfortable, shuffling and disturbing the blankets under them.

He _was_ surprised when instead of just laying back down again, Megatron loomed over him and kissed the side of his helm, firm and lingering. Starscream lifted a servo to brush his cheek, just as he withdrew.

"Rest well, Starscream."

Starscream said something vague, hiding his smile in the opposite direction, hoping Megatron couldn't see.

 

* * *

 

It continued to snow into the morning, so there wasn't enough light coming through the garage windows to rouse them. Megatron didn't see much urgency in moving yet anyway. The fleshlings inside the house next to them were silent still, and Starscream, having shifted to lay his helm on his shoulder, arm thrown over his middle, was recharging soundly. No twitches. No mumbles.

No nightmares.

The stillness of the moment was precious. The snow outside fell silently, and the wind was still. There were no distractions. Just the two of them, sharing a garage with a barnacle encrusted boat and shelves full of old paint tins.

For the first time, not just in their time wandering the wilderness, but a long time, longer even than he really cared to admit, Megatron felt at peace.

He relished it for a while longer, until he heard engines in the distance. Car engines.

Growing louder.

"Starscream." He lifted his shoulder to nudge him, an awful sinking feeling growing in the pit of his tanks. "Wake up, Starscream."

Starscream groaned, rolling away and rubbing at his optics. "Alright, I'm up-"

"Quiet." Megatron held a servo out, focusing his audials. Breaks squeaking. The crunch of snow under wheels. Multiple vehicles.

Starscream was eerily still next to him, half risen on his knees. They listened. Megatron hardly dared to breathe.

Then the engines cut off with the distinct sounds of activating transformation cogs, armour clanking together-

Megatron's spark froze and icy horror spread through his limbs. He went to rise but the sensors in his leg went off with sudden, searing pain. Starscream was up. Kicking sheets away. Scrambling for the shelves. Rifling through them desperately. Megatron couldn't even _stand_. His leg too stiff and numb and useless.

Starscream hissed a ragged curse, knocking half the shelf over. Red and blue armour passed by the window. The garage door creaked. Starscream span around with a wood chopping axe just as the door flew upwards.

The axe was shot spinning out of his servo in an instant.

Optimus Prime and a dozen of his finest Autobots stood before them. Weapons drawn.

 

 


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Early update as a Halloween treat!

Finding them hadn't been all that hard.

Hound found comfort in the natural beauty of this planet, so different from Cybertron, so complicated and balanced. The earth, the trees, the birds. He enjoyed the brief glimpses of nature on his patrols, but sometimes it was nice to go further afield. He was quick to befriend park rangers, and they seemed to take a shine to him too.

When they told him of how a helicopter full of tourists reported seeing a monster between the trees in one of his favourite national parks, he assumed it would be another one of those 'Bigfoot Monster' tales a lot of humans seemed fond of. But no.

Giant. Metal. _Thing_.

A 'giant metal thing' could have been anything really. To hysterical poorly sighted humans a 'giant metal thing' could have been a trick of light, an abandoned truck, maybe a derelict building. The rangers had searched the area afterward, fearing a crash of some sort, but found no monster, metal or otherwise. Only felled trees and crushed foliage, trampled wildlife.

Curious, Hound had asked to take a look.

"See here," one of the rangers crouched beside a large indent in the earth, "Too big to be a track. More like heavy machinery came through here. We've doubled patrols, looking for illegal loggers-"

"It's not loggers." Hound said, crouching like the human had, touching the ground. He glanced upwards at one of the split trees. Towards the base was a mark, a dark thick substance. Not tree sap. He'd been taught what that looked like.

He swiped a digit through it.

"Energon." He said. Around two weeks old, the same time the tourists had seen their monster.

"One of yours?" The ranger tipped his hat up, looking annoyed.

"No." Hound rose to his full height, "Not ours."

This wasn't a job for rangers and Hound was unwilling to put them at risk. He comm'ed Optimus, and after a quick study of local human news it became apparent he'd need back up.

"It's Megatron," Optimus's steady voice said through the comm. "Starscream too. They've been caught on street cameras. Stay on the trail. We'll reach your coordinates as soon as we can."

Now Hound was no hot shot front-liner. He had _no_ intention of taking Megatron and Starscream alone, even if they were injured- and from what he could tell, they _were_ injured. Or one of them was.

He passed through a town, heard their stories about having seen a 'robot' like him destroying a swing set and kicking around a trash can in the middle of the night. There had been a break in at an Auto-repair shop, and another at a book storing warehouse. The mechanics had been cleared out. Nothing had been taken from the warehouse. Reading must not have been high on their priorities.

The snow made it difficult to track them, but he seemed to be catching up quickly. There were more stories of siphoned fuel, of trashed farm sheds and barns. Some humans let him watch their security footage and he sent it back to Optimus.

Because Megatron limping, using his treacherous second as a crutch wasn't something an Autobot witnessed everyday.

"I hope you find your friends!" The little girl living on the farm he passed through waved to Hound as he left. He waved back with a smile.

The next night found him rolling into another town, following tracks kept fresh by ice. It was quiet but bright with festive lights. Hound felt a tinge of annoyance at the reminder. He'd been looking forward to experiencing the human holiday with his friends and their human allies.

" _Presents and togetherness_ ," is what Carly had said it was about. " _You'll like it, Hound_."

He'd like it more if he wasn't alone and halfway across the country.

He pulled up on a street, searching for nearby energy signatures. He picked something up about a block away. He switched his headlamps off, rolling silently forwards.

Ahead of him was a car wash, the lights on, machinery working. There was a shrill shriek and deep laughter and Hound almost transformed into bipedal mode just so he could rub at his optics in disbelief.

The two most ferocious Decepticons in existence... taking a break from dragging one another across country to goof off in a car wash. There was little to do _but_ watch.

And maybe make a copy of the security footage for those less lucky to witness such a bizarre moment.

"Prime." He activated his comm. "I've found them."

Through the glass, Starscream bullied Megatron to the floor and began cleaning him. He swung a leg over his lap, and there was something so intimate about their body language that Hound felt a flush of embarrassment rising in him. Nothing happened, but there was a look in their dark Decepticon optics...

One that didn't look so Decepticon-y at all.

 

* * *

 

Starscream had planted himself in the doorway, between Megatron and the Autobots, a stubborn, unarmed, fool that seemed to think if he used language vulgar enough, Optimus Prime would be so offended he'd leave.

Megatron had tried it before. It didn't work.

"Stand down, Starscream." Prime rumbled.

"Starscream." Megatron tried, for the sake of the idiot not getting shot and leaving him alone to fend for himself against these dolts.

They were both ignored. Starscream's claws curled threateningly, a determined look on his face. "Frag you, you crusty old relic! _You_ stand down!"

Behind Prime, his Autobots were looking increasingly bored, weapons held at disinterested angles. Ironhide even hid a yawn behind his arm. They all knew they were unarmed, under-fuelled, and outnumbered. 

Since Starscream wouldn't (and never had) responded to reason, Prime holstered his blaster with a sigh, tilting his helm back towards his mechs with some silent command. They moved in.

Megatron was forced to watch as they surrounded Starscream. There were swipes and kicks and Autobots yelling, " _Ahh! He's got my kibble_!" but they had him well outnumbered. Though for a mech so malnourished, unbalanced, and exhausted, he did well to put up any fight at all.

Ironhide and Prime left their underlings to restrain Starscream alone, stepping around the brawl and instead stooping to enter the garage and loom over Megatron. They didn't seem as inclined to pounce on him as their fellows had Starscream.

Not that Megatron could blame them. It was difficult for him to muster the same sort of menace when he was stuck on the floor with one working leg.

"Megatron." Prime greeted with a hint of amusement mixed into his usual disappointment. He made a show of looking around the garage, at the boat and the empty jerry cans. "This isn't your usual sort of target. Stealing fuel from innocent families now?"

"Very funny, Prime." He growled, unable to fully engage in witty banter with him when his Autobots were wrestling with Starscream behind them. They'd pinned him to the ground, pressed him face down into six inches of snow. Two of them were sitting on him. It looked like a lot of hard work.

But that was typical of Starscream; a fighter to the very end. Megatron felt a ridiculous wave of pride roll through him.

"Yer injured." Ironhide pointed out with a nod to his leg, then back at Starscream. "He do it? Surprised you've lasted so long with 'im."

Megatron grit his denta and said nothing. If the Autobots wanted to consider them divided and not a team, that would only work in their favour.

Prime was looking at his leg with some concern though- not sympathetic, but righteous. He was too noble for his own good.

"Comm ahead to base." Prime tilted his helm towards Ironhide. "Let Ratchet know he had a patient incoming."

Ironhide nodded, tilting his neck to carry out the order.

Prime's gaze fell on him again. "Are you going to kick up as much fuss as your second, or are you going to it be sensible and set an example?"

Megatron's denta ground together, "I hardly have the capacity to 'kick up a fuss', do I?"

Prime seemed to consider that as good as he was going to get. "Hound," he called, "Jazz," the two Autobots disentangled themselves from the mostly contained Starscream-situation, though Megatron was pleased to see deep furrows in Jazz's chest, the same shape as Starscream's claws.

"Jus' tiring him out, boss bot," Jazz explained with a nod towards Starscream.

"I think he's been 'tired out' enough," Prime said, and Megatron detected a hint of reproach. "We're taking them back. Load Megatron into my trailer, and Starscream, if you can manage not to lose a limb."

 

* * *

 

Starscream broke a few fingers and scratched some plating, but that's all he managed, fatigued as he was. His arms and legs ached, and it was all he could do to stay standing when the Autobots finally hauled him out of the snow.

"Traitors!" He snarled as soon as he was upright, twisting and shouting at the quiet country house. The humans had gathered around their doorway, looking horrified by the commotion, whatever Bumblebee was saying to calm them clearly not working. "Fleshling scum!"

"Chill out, Screamer," the red Autobot pleb, Sideswipe, yanked him in the right direction again, towards where the trailer was waiting. "Nobody betrayed you. Hound's been following you for days-"

Starscream looked to the Autobot in question, an unassuming green and brown bot, currently helping Megatron into the back of Prime's trailer.

"Not that it was hard," Prowl, miserable and angry, threw his opinion into the mix. "A trail of energon and destruction."

Starscream was actually offended. They hardly destroyed anything!

Well, on purpose at least.

"And we _saw_ what you did to that car wash." Sideswipe said, mimicking his superiors disapproving tone.

Starscream stumbled in the snow, cheeks blazing red. "You voyeuristic freaks!"

"And where the heck are you wings?" Sideswipe was wearing a slag-eating grin, clearly determined to wind him up as much as possible. "You look pretty ugly without them-"

" _Ugly_?!" He howled, trying to drop out of Sideswipe's grip to swipe at him again, but at his shout his Autobot comrades closed in, each seizing a limb and lifting him clear off the ground.

He was hauled hastily the rest of the way to the trailer. Unlike Megatron, whose injury had won him the sympathy of light handling, Starscream was shoved in, practically _thrown_. He fell on his side and they cramped his legs in the rest of the way so they could lift the ramp before he had time to turn around and attack again.

It shut with a slam, locking with a clank, leaving the trailer in darkness.

Megatron's optics shone bright at the other end. "Was that really necessary?" He sounded disapproving.

Starscream scowled, "At least I had the dignity to fight! You let them lead you in here like some frail old mech that- that can't even walk down stairs."

"I _am_ a frail old mech and I probably can't walk down stairs." Megatron growled. "We're damaged, weak, fighting now does little good."

"It made me feel better." He huffed, folding his legs under him and leaning back against the trailer side. "So did breaking their fingers."

Megatron sighed deeply at the other end.

Starscream looked aside, feeling miserable. All they'd done, all they'd suffered, the hundreds of miles they'd walked, all for nothing. The Autobots were going to lock them up in their brig and as far as the Decepticons, and his trine, knew, he and Megatron had been dead for weeks.

Even if they could somehow communicate with them, they'd think it was a trap...

Who would bother bargaining for dead mechs?

"What going to happen to us?" He asked.

Megatron might have answered, but the vibration of Prime's engine starting cut off the conversation. The trailer rocked under them as it rolled forwards, and they were on their way.

 

* * *

 

The journey was far shorter than either of them had expected.

Considering they were far, far from the Autobot's base of operations Starscream had been expecting to remain trapped in the back of Prime's stuffy trailer with Megatron for the better part of a day or two, maybe three or four, depending on the snow.

But it had been no more than an hour or two when he felt a subtle deceleration. Megatron stirred from his dose, still exhausted after their restless night, his optics flicking red in his dark corner of the trailer.

"If I throw you at them when they lower the ramp, I might be able to escape," Starscream told him, listening to the other Autobots pull up around them.

"You're welcome to try." Megatron mumbled, content enough to drop his helm back against the trailer side as they listened to Autobots talking. "But you'll get no sympathy from me when you're shot."

Ah yes, Starscream remembered grumpily. It was a lot easier to shoot someone confined to the ground than it was a jet in the air.

The trailer clanked as it unlocked and Ironhide's voice bellowed, "Don't even think about jumping out at me, Screamer!"

"Seems they know you too well." Megatron muttered.

Starscream could really do without his smart comments. He was taking this all far too calmly.

The ramp lowered and both Autobots and humans were waiting for them at the bottom, all of them armed, guns drawn. Ironhide waved Starscream forwards, making a gesture to Megatron that he stay where he was.

Starscream scowled.

"We can drag you out, thrusters first?" Ironhide tilted his helm, nodding towards the dark grey slush that was half melted snow at his pedes. "Or you can walk?"

"I'll walk." Starscream snarled, gripping the side of the trailer and hauling himself out. Sudden movement made guns twitch, particularly from the humans. Starscream cast them a distasteful glance.

They certainly weren't at the Autobot's Ark. This looked like some sort of fleshling military base, though none of it looked official. The humans were a mishmash of police, sheriffs, and people who generally looked very annoyed to be there. Starscream didn't regret ruining their holiday. His day wasn't going too well either.

Prowl stepped around the human sheriffs he looked so very at home with, producing a pair of cuffs. "Wrists."

Starscream glanced back at Megatron, watching from the trailer still, brow furrowed with concern. Starscream struggled to convey reassurance with expression alone, but he wasn't going to say anything in front of the Autobots.

Cool metal closed around his wrists and he was yanked forwards. He released a sigh, hoping wherever they stuffed him it would be warm.

 

* * *

 

They took Starscream into one of the large hangers (a vast majority of the human onlookers trailing behind curiously) likely to lock him up. Megatron couldn't imagine that would go well. These humans were unlikely to have facilities capable of holding any Cybertronian, let alone an escape artist of Starscream's skill.

Megatron watched him go, wondering how long they'd be separated- trying not to think about how likely it was to be indefinitely.

His own fate wasn't quite so merciful as a being locked up though.

He had only just managed to fumble out of the trailer when he heard _him_ , the dreaded yell of the universe's most impatient medic. Ratchet appeared, flanked by his leader -though the Prime appeared to be having trouble trying to keep up with his fast, angry strides.

"- well happy _fragging_ holidays to us then!" He was yelling. "Maybe he _should_ be left to rust? Ever think that could be the real Christmas miracle?! Ridding the world of him!"

Megatron felt himself tense, and Ironhide at his side gave him a gentle warning nudge.

"-and who do you think _you're_ scowling at, you great big-"

"Ratchet, please," Prime took Ratchet's shoulder and seemed to grip it tightly when the chief medic finally spotted Megatron, his fury jumping up another few notches. "Whatever he's done, however we feel, we cannot allow him to suffer in our custody and still call ourselves the better-"

"Then let him loose?!" Ratchet held his arms open, "Let the cold get to him-"

"Ratchet." Prime's voice deepened with reproach.

Ratchet stiffened, fists and mouth tight. He looked between his leader, then across the tarmac at Megatron.

He looked away with an angry curse.

"You owe me!" He yelled at Prime, already storming away.

Prime came to Megatron afterwards, watching his medic send innocents scurrying from his path. His optics brightened like he was smiling under his mask. "He's agreed to repair you."

Megatron snorted, his breath misting in the frigid air. "Oh yes, he sounded very agreeable."

 


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Mostly-Him](http://mostly-him.tumblr.com) has brought colour and beauty to this fic with [this](http://mostly-him.tumblr.com/post/179647773627/are-you-going-to-let-me-fix-that-yet-perhaps) piece they created. They're a fantastic artist so if you don't all go to their tumblr right now and fall in love with their work, I shall be very disappointed in you all.

About to be at the mercy of a short tempered medic who made his hate for him no secret, Megatron should have had greater concerns to occupy himself with than what was happening with Starscream. The brat could take care of himself.

He hoped.

"Where is he, Prime?" He demanded, resisting the Autobots' attempts to steer him towards the examination table.

"He is well guarded." Is all Prime said, tone dripping with exasperation. It wasn't the first time Megatron had asked him. "Sit _down_ , Megatron. Or I may be tempted to allow Ratchet his _alternative_ suggestion of repairs."

Ratchet picked up a chainsaw and revved it threateningly, "It'll take twenty seconds and a lot less effort on my part if I'm allowed to hack it off, bucket-head."

He looked fairly serious, and though Megatron knew Prime would never give his permission, he also knew Ratchet didn't necessarily require it. He sat on the examination berth, and after a brief war with his sense of pride and growing vulnerably, he reclined.

The berth had restraints and they were quickly slapped on, stasis cuffs locking and keeping him pinned. A light flickered on above him, momentarily blinding him. He heard Ratchet clattering with equipment, then there was a touch to his wrist.

"Might as well see what else is wrong with you," Ratchet muttered, starting to run a diagnostic. "No point me fixing your leg if you're just going to keel over from cosmic rust a day from now."

"I don't have rust." Megatron snarled.

Ratchet snorted.

"You're full of sludge." He commented, which clearly wasn't a clinical term. "Enjoy all that organic fuel, did you? Because the impurities it's left behind are going to need to be voided."

There was a delighted ring to Ratchet's tone, which meant the procedure was likely going to be unpleasant.

Megatron glared at the ceiling, but found his mind wandering to Starscream once again. He'd been consuming the same organic impurities. He'd be even more likely to need the same treatment- Megatron was built with robust tanks and filters, but seekers were known for being finely tuned and, in a lot of ways, delicate.

"Starscream," He said aloud, and his voice came out slurred, glossa thick. He realised why when he saw Ratchet's servo withdraw with an empty syringe. He was going under. The edges of his vision began to blur.

"Yeah, Starscream," Ratchet agreed patronisingly, fading to grey, "He'll be suffering the same, don't you worry..."

 

* * *

 

Ratchet waited until optics had darkened to black, then patted Megatron's cheek. The warlord's helm lolled listlessly, so he slapped him again. Hard.

"Ratchet."

Ratchet ignored Optimus' exasperation, picking up his tools for pre-procedure inspection. "We need to be sure he's under."

"If that didn't wake him, little else will." Optimus sauntered a little closer, bending over to peer at Megatron's injury. "It doesn't look good, does it?"

"No." Ratchet agreed bluntly, "He should be dead. If there was any justice in the universe, he would be."

Optimus's optics brightened to near white. "Dead?"

"Energon poisoning." Ratchet tilted Megatron's infected leg to the side and swiped a digit through the thick darkened substance that was once bright vibrant energon. "It's filled his fuel lines and will start shutting down his frame."

Optimus looked at Megatron's slack face. "You mean to say he's-"

"Not going to die, no." Ratchet ignored the curl of indignation at the idea he couldn't reverse this. "Not in my medbay, at least. Just means I'll have to flush it all out, replace it with fresh, healthy, clean fuel."

Optimus not so subtly moved towards the door, clearly reluctant to be witness to whatever that entailed. He hummed interestedly, more squeamish than he would ever really admit.

"Doing that will probably give him a bit of a boost though," Ratchet added before he could escape, just to keep him informed. "And we can't have him punching through the walls, can we?"

"Then keep him sedate," Optimus waved vaguely, already halfway into the corridor. "Whatever you think is best, Ratchet."

Ratchet nodded to himself in satisfaction, patting Megatron's unresponsive frame, "I'm going to make so you won't even remember your own name."

With any luck, a high Megatron would a Megatron easier to contain.

 

* * *

 

  
"Well, this looks homely." Starscream commented when he was presented with what appeared to be his holding cell.

Since this human-built facility lacked the appropriate equipment to keep a genius such as himself contained, it appeared they'd had to improvise. When he was guided into the hanger by his guards, the Autobot's were still putting it together.

'It' being the large glass cube in the centre of the hanger.

Well, it looked like glass, but Wheeljack and Perceptor were off to the side pointing and nodding and talking about something scientifically, so it was more likely to be some sort of experimental material, something tough, invulnerable.

Inside the box they'd put a basic berth slab and little else. No comforts, and with transparent walls, no privacy.

Starscream's mood sunk lower.

Once they all seemed content with the structural integrity of their _box_ , Ironhide led him onwards. The seams for the door appeared out of nowhere and split apart. Starscream felt himself pass through some sort of field when he was urged to step in. Ironhide didn't follow him over the threshold. He left the cuffs on him too.

"So much for Autobot hospitality." Starscream snarled as the door swept shut again and a vacuum of sound was created. He turned on the spot, sneering at all the Autobots in turn. He felt less like a prisoner and more like a specimen on display.

"Temporary measures, Starscream." Perceptor informed him, his voice electronically distorted. He came close enough to tap at one of the corners of the box, and typed something down on his datapad. "As soon as Ratchet is free to attend you you'll be taken to have your secondary weapons and battle computer deactivated."

Starscream's nostrils flared. "And my wings?"

Perceptor made a humming noise and began to moving away, reading his notes. Starscream's gaze flicked to Wheeljack next, who gave him a vaguely sympathetic looking shrug.

"Where is Megatron?" Starscream asked instead. There was no other glass box sitting in the hanger, but the small berth slab he'd been left with implied he wouldn't be sharing this one with his leader. "Why have you separated us?"

"Why'dja think?" Ironhide muttered gruffly, already striding away. "Jackie!"

"Hey!" Starscream slammed his fist against the glass when Wheeljack followed, leaving him. The glass didn't so much as judder, like it was protected by the field Starscream had passed through.

He shook aside his distraction at the flawless security and yelled again. "Where is he!?"

The hanger doors began to close, leaving Starscream alone in the dark.

 

* * *

 

Megatron began to wake and wondered why there was no one beside him, twitching and shuffling closer for warmth, no claws tips catching in his seams, no cold nose pushed into his neck. No Starscream, restless and warm but always welcome in his arms.

He turned his helm to the side, wondering if Starscream had simply wandered off to find some fuel. Megatron wished he wouldn't. He didn't like waking up alone.

"He's coming back around," a gruff voice that didn't sound like _Starscream_ at all spoke. Megatron felt servos on him, adjusting his leg, pulling at a fuel line in his wrist, but his optics wouldn't online to let him see who was doing it.

Very little of his frame would respond actually. His fingers could twitch, but wouldn't curl. It was like everything had been stasis locked. He exhaled harshly, an angry snort, to express how inconvenienced he was.

"Definitely awake."

He recognised the voice now- and with it, his sense foreboding made better sense. He was captured. Autobots. Ratchet. Repairs.

"Starscream," he mumbled, glossa thick and stupid, wondering where his second was.

He heard a heavy sigh, then someone else asking. "Still asking for him?"

"Hasn't stopped." Ratchet muttered, sounding close to Megatron's audial. A fuel line was tugged, pinched, massaged, and almost instantly the sense of cloudiness began rising again. The voices sounded like they were drifting away.

"Who knew a couple weeks in the wilderness together was all it took... them... together..."

Ratchet's words trailed into nothingness as both he and the troubles of consciousness slipped away from Megatron. The sedatives were powerful, and _good_.

He left the medbay behind and his subconscious dragged forth pleasant memories, quiet evenings reading and bright days spent watching the clouds. Starscream flew through them and did a barrel roll, elegant and stunning. In his dream there was nothing to stop Megatron from flying up and following him, arms outstretched, reaching, but never quite catching.

"Starscream." He breathed.

Back in the conscious world Ratchet and First Aid shared a look over the top of their sedated patient, confused beyond measure, and more than a little weirded out.

 

* * *

 

It took Ratchet the better part of the day to bring Megatron back to adequate functionality and despite his earlier reluctance to do _anything_ to aid the Decepticon he held personally responsible for ruining his and his friends lives... he did a thorough job.

"Thank you, Ratchet," Optimus praised warmly, genuinely appreciative of his chief medical officer's work. Megatron had been rewired and welded and hammered back into shape. Even the minor dents and scuffs had been taken care of.

"I have a reputation to upkeep." Ratchet muttered, cleaning some of his equipment. "Can't let the old bucket fall apart when I was the last medic to see to him."

Optimus hummed in amused agreement, peering down at Megatron's unmoving form. "He's still sedated?"

"For another hour or two on this dose." Ratchet shrugged. "I'd bring him around, but i thought we'd all appreciate the extra few moments peace."

Optimus resisted the urge to sigh. "There's also the matter of Starscream-"

Ratchet began to mutter unsavoury things under his breath.

"His wings-" Optimus began, but Ratchet held up a servo, stopping him.

The medic went to another equipment table and turned around with two misshapen sheets of crumpled white metal. They were scuffed and crumpled almost beyond recognition, but regardless of the damage, Optimus would know them anywhere.

Starscream's missing wings.

"Where did-?"

"His subspace," Ratchet nodded towards Megatron. He made a considerate face, turning a wing over in his servo. "Looks like they were crushed."

Optimus knew of Megatron's brutality first hand, and was aware that he didn't always save it for the enemy. An awful weight began to settle over his shoulders as he looked between Megatron's powerful fists and the delicate wings. "He didn't-"

"Rip them off?" Ratchet finished for him casually. "No. These were disconnected. Not a bad job either." He twirled the wing around in his servo, like it was a toy and not a dismembered limb. "Don't often work with wings like these, but I know they gush fuel. Right decision, taking them off. I would have done the same."

Optimus breathed a little easier. "Ironhide tells me Starscream has been asking for him."

Ratchet didn't look surprised. "I've had much the same here." He glared at the unconscious Megatron. "Not even awake and he's whining for him. If I didn't know better, I'd say they'd gotten _attached_ to one another."

Ratchet accompanied his verdict with a suggestive brow waggle, but for the most part looked like he was only teasing. Optimus considered it seriously for a brief moment- thinking back to when they'd found them in the garage, Starscream standing between him and Megatron with no intention of backing down.

Behind the mask he found himself smiling. "I suppose the spirit of the season got to them."

Ratchet snorted, "Yeah, that'll be a whole new kind of miracle."

 

* * *

 

It was hours before anyone came back.

The hanger opened and Starscream twisted on the spot, rising eagerly and pressing his servos to the glass wall. The frame coming through was too short to be Megatron though, and his spark wilted.

It was an Autobot, carrying a quarter cube.

He sneered. "Where's the rest of it?"

The Autobot, Hound (he thought that was the green little dirt ball's name) looked sympathetic. "Just something to boost your energy levels." He explained, coming to stand in front of the invisible door. It opened, and Starscream watched the air in front of him ripple as the field seemed to shrink.

Hound placed the quarter cube on the ground, just inside the glass, then stepped back. The door resealed, and the near-invisible shield expanded again. Cautiously, Starscream reached for it.

"Ratchet's going to repair you soon, afterwards you'll be refuelled properly. He said something about voiding your current reserves, so any more than a little energon would be a waste."

Starscream pulled a face, lifting the cube to his mouth. "I'd rather I wasn't pawed at by your derelict medic."

"Ratchet's the best there is." Hound said, not easily provoked.

Starscream wasn't listening anymore anyway. He drank, and savoured the fresh, refined energon on his glossa. He'd almost forgotten fuel could taste so good. He had to restrain himself from guzzling.

Hound was clearly waiting for him to finish. Starscream realised it was because he wanted the empty cube back.

But of course, the glass cell was barren save for a nailed down berth. They couldn't have him improvising a weapon out of anything. Rolling his optics he placed it on the ground where Hound had, stepping back.

Hound went through the whole show again to retrieve it.

"Will I see Megatron?" He asked, watching the Autobot carefully. "Has he been repaired?"

Hound looked conflicted, but sympathetic. "I'm not at liberty to talk to you."

"We're already talking." Starscream purred, laying on the charm. "Come now, Hound, isn't it? What harm could it bring? Just tell me where he is?"

Hound wasn't budging, "Starscream, I'm not-"

"I just want to know I can see him," Starscream pressed, biting down on his glossa to keep his tone from turning into something desperate. "Just tell me I can see him."

Hound shook his helm, "We can't let you sit around plotting your escape."

Starscream slammed a fist against the glass. Hound jumped.

"We're not going to plot anything, fool! I just want to know if he's-" he stopped himself with a hiss, letting his servo drag down the glass. His pride warred with his anxiety.

"...Ratchet's repaired him." Hound said, very quietly, glancing back toward the hanger door as though fearing he'd be caught. "He's alright. Still unconscious though."

A wave of relief washed over Starscream. He stared at Hound imploringly. "I want to see him."

Hound began walking away, shaking his helm. "Sorry Starscream."

The hanger closed, and alone again, Starscream struggled not to dwell on mounting anxieties.

He closed his optics and saw not Skyfire, but Megatron amongst the snow, getting buried in it, out of reach.

He dragged his claws over his helm and took a deep breath, struggling to get a grip. But he was alone.

There was no warm voice telling him to wake up.

 

* * *

 

Megatron couldn't remember if he'd woken up before he'd been moved, but he was in a different place now. He was still on a berth, reclined, and kept so with (thankfully) looser restrains. His leg, still aching from recent repairs, was looking almost as good as new. It was suspended at the forty five degree angle to help with fuel circulation.

Still hazy (from Primus-knows what he was given), he looked to his left, and was surprised to find Prime bent at the waist, arguing with a small human women in a professional looking suit.

"-unnecessary and cruel to use such excessive restraints on a recovering patient." Prime was using his most disapproving tone to speak down to the angry woman, who had her arms crossed and brow furrowed. "Megatron is currently incapable of walking, let alone planning an escape-"

Megatron snarled to show that he was awake, and disagreed with that assessment. Prime's bright optics snapped to him, gaze still steely.

"You'd better hope he doesn't escape, Prime." The woman was unabashedly bold for a delicate organic flesh bag talking to a warrior alien that could very easily tread on her. "The last thing I need is for the last headline of the year to be ' _one-legged warlord's holiday rampage continues into January'!"_

Megatron's restraints jingled when he pulled on them. Prime glared, but the human was far from impressed.

"I mean it, Prime," she pointed at him, then left, her tight high ponytail swinging in her wake.

Prime sighed loudly.

"I've told you a thousand times." Megatron rolled his helm across the pillow to look at him more intensely. "These flesh bags aren't worth the trouble."

"Funny." Prime said darkly, "I've had a lot of visitors today saying the same for _you._ "

Megatron wasn't in the mood for bickering with him. "Where's Starscream?"

"We're affording him all the rights of any prisoner." Prime said simply.

"That's not what I asked." Megatron would have lifted a servo to point threateningly if he wasn't bolted down like a mech about to subjected to experimentation. "Where is he? And when will I see him?"

"I know you like to think I have a reputation for being soft of spark, Megatron, but the pleasure of Starscream's company is a privilege, not a right. You won't be seeing him."

Megatron's felt his chest swell with righteous anger. "That's what you think."

Prime, to his credit, only looked mildly disturbed.

 

* * *

 

Starscream was laying on the floor in what looked like a dramatic sprawl. Ironhide craned his neck to get a better look, wondering if the seeker had actually collapsed or if this was further melodrama.

"Screamer?"

No movement.

"Screamer, don't make me get the hose."

There was a twitch. Still alive then.

Ironhide rolled his optics and stepped up to the box, waiting for the door to open. "Ratchet's gonna stick yer wings back on," he said, in an attempt to sweep away Starscream's despair. "Come on, quick, 'fore he changes his mind."

Starscream looked up at him from the floor, face the very picture of misery. His dark lips were pressed into a pout that wouldn't have looked out of place on a sparkling. Ironhide sighed again, wondering why he couldn't have been put in change of Megatron instead. 

He was still an aft, but at least _he_ didn't sulk.

Ironhide crouched to drag Starscream to his thrusters, but it was a trap. The moment his guard was lowered Starscream threw out his cuffed servos. Ironhide flung his helm back to avoid the blow and it only brushed his jaw, but he overbalanced and landed hard on his aft.

Like a shot, Starscream was up, running for the door, laughing maniacally at his own cleverness-

-hitting the invisible shield with a screech and landing hard on his back.

Ironhide climbed to his pedes wearily, moving to reclaim him, "Nice try, Screamer."

Starscream didn't look like he regretted the attempt. "Just let me see him!"

"What is it with you two," Ironhide growled, patience wearing thin now. He hauled Starscream upwards and wrestled him towards the door, "You planned some dumb-aft escape?"

"No," Starscream would _not_ walk in a straight fragging line. He dug his heels in and twisted and thrashed. "What escape would work when the old fool can't walk more than three paces without falling over?"

Ironhide restrained himself from correcting Starscream. He didn't need to know that Megatron was already on the road to recovery. Knowing Ratchet's skills, in a week or so that leg would be more than capable of getting up to speed.

"Just let me speak to him." Starscream continued to bargain. "I need him to know something-"

"No. Walk properly."

"Then let me send him a message!" Starscream argued. "One message and I'll cooperate."

Ironhide was sorely tempted to kick him up the aft. He ground his denta together, "What message?"

Starscream stopped, mouth working wordlessly, like he hadn't actually thought he'd get the request granted. "I... Tell him..."

"Spit it out, Screamer." Ironhide pressed.

Starscream exhaled sharply, his dark face glowing with a little flush energon. "Alright, tell him..."

 

* * *

 

Ironhide wasn't at all interested in keeping Starscream's trust. He dropped the prisoner off at the medbay and left him to Ratchet's mercy, then went to deliver the message.

To Prime. Not Megatron.

Prime let his helm drop into his servos with a heavy sigh. Ironhide shifted his footing, trying to project an aura of general disinterest in regards to the Decepticon-situation, no matter how good the gossip was getting. He was already getting endless questions from the others about what was happening. Starscream's message was only going to add fuel to an already raging rumour fire.

" _Tell him I meant what I said. Tell him I won't leave him behind._ "

Loyalty from Starscream; not something Ironhide thought he'd see in this universe.

Prime lifted his helm again, servos opening in defeat.

"Ten minutes." He said, pinching the top of his face mask, emotionally defeated at last. "They can have ten minutes together."

Ironhide doubted they'd have any luck prising them apart again after just ten minutes, but orders were orders, he supposed.

 


	12. Chapter 12

Prime was being inconveniently vague about his plans for them. There'd been no mention of contacting the Decepticons for negotiations, or whoever had assumed command of them. Megatron knew Soundwave would have wasted little time before setting things into motion.

The lack of progress implied it wasn't him at the helm, and Megatron feared for what was happening down below on the ocean floor if his most competent follower had failed to claim the baton of leadership.

He wasn't left to muse long. The door to his room or cell, or whatever this was supposed to be, opened, and in strode Ironhide.

Megatron flexed against his restraints, resenting how defenceless they made him.

Ironhide left the door open behind him, and the sounds of revelry drifted through from the corridor. It sounded like the Autobots were celebrating this holiday with their human allies. Megatron sneered at Ironhide distastefully.

"Gotta visitor." Ironhide told him, and to Megatron's supreme surprise, began to loosen his restraints.

"Is it this so called 'Santa'?" Still a little high, he wasn't able to resist a bit of mocking.

Ironhide tugged on his arm with unnecessary force when he un-cuffed his wrist, but whatever response he planned to make was interrupted by angry voices outside; one shrill, but too quiet to understand, the other Prime.

"-would be a great error in judgment to keep him restrained and unable to defend himself." Prime was using his righteous know-all voice. "Starscream is known for his tricks and this could easily be another attempt on Megatron's life-"

Interested, Megatron sat up. He could just glimpse Prime around the doorway, talking to the suited woman from earlier out in the corridor. Megatron decided she must have been important, as far as humans went, because she certainly had no qualms about talking down to Prime.

"-error of judgment allowing this in the first place!" She argued back.

Prime said something about 'Christmas' and 'goodwill' and Megatron thought his optics were going to roll into the back of his helm and never come around again at how sickening soft Prime was- it must have shown in his face, because Ironhide knocked his shoulder with a reproachful look.

"Knock it off. Yer should be thanking him," Ironhide muttered, and unlatched the last restraint from his good leg.

The bad one was left up in it's sling. Megatron wondered if it could take his weight yet. No medic had come to update him on his physical capabilities. Though they probably thought the less he knew the better.

Ironhide moved back towards the doorway, calling to Prime, "He's ready."

Prime nodded, moving down the corridor. The human female was still trying to argue with him, her voice trailed off when she marched after him.

Megatron stared at the open door they'd left, wondering if this was some sort of trap. Would it be worth trying to escape when he was still ignorant as to where Starscream was? He certainly couldn't leave without him.

He needn't have worried. He had barely begun trying to undo the device holding his leg aloft when a clatter of armour and frustrated voices drifted into his room from the corridor again.

A snap of, " _Screamer_!" had Megatron straightening, spark lifting.

The article himself appeared in the doorway a moment later, and the two Autobots holding onto him where almost dragged bodily across the floor when Starscream spotted Megatron and tried to launch at him.

"Let go of me, fools!"

The Autobots seemed reluctant to let him go, but Ironhide appeared a second later, waving them down. "Let 'em go, kids."

Starscream slipped from their grasps and stumbled into the middle of the room, glaring. His servos were still cuffed in front of him, but his wings were back, his face was fresh, optics bright. He looked good. Handsome. Healed.

Megatron wondered if he'd always been so beautiful.

Even if he was still sneering and spitting at the Autobots.

"Ten minutes." Ironhide pointed angrily.

"Frag you, an hour!" Starscream argued back.

Ironhide's jaw flexed. "Five."

"Fine, ten." Starscream quickly amended, then waved his cuffed servos at them dismissively, "Go on. Shoo."

Ironhide muttered something unsavoury under his breath but left with his two rent-a-thugs. The door shut behind them, and Megatron heard it clang with the sound of a heavy lock. He glared after them.

Then choked in surprise when cuffed servos looped around the back of his neck and yanked him into a kiss. He hummed a protest, and Starscream pulled away quickly, optics wide.

"Are you-?"

"Fine." Megatron reassured, his nose bumping Starscream's with how close they were. "Soft sparked Autobots, they put everything back to how it should be."

Starscream nodded, lips pressed into a firm worried line. "What has Prime told you? I can't seem to get anything out of his little lemmings."

Megatron shook his helm. "Not much. No mention of what he has planned."

Starscream looked even paler then. The servos on the back of Megatron's neck stroked him distractedly. Megatron lifted an arm around his narrow waist to try and offer some form of comfort. Starscream took it as an invitation to join him to the narrow berth though, and started to climb up.

"Starscream," Megatron winced reproachfully when his leg was jostled.

"Don't be a wuss," Starscream muttered, tucking himself close to his side and nudging him along the narrow berth to make room for himself.

There wasn't any room of course, so Starscream draped himself over the left half of Megatron's frame, an arm sneaking around his middle and clinging. Megatron grunted, because he wasn't by any means light.

"Shh," Starscream tucked his face into his neck. "We only have ten minutes."

"Why _do_ we have ten minutes?" Megatron asked, wondering why Prime had changed his mind after so many vehement denials. He usually had more conviction than that.

Starscream just shrugged, optics drifting shut. Megatron decided to follow his lead and not waste precious moments questioning their luck. He turned to his helm and his nose brushed the top of Starscream's helm. He could smell him, his natural musk and a hint of medical cleaner- from the medbay.

"Where are they keeping you?" He asked.

"The hanger." Starscream's lips tickled his neck when he spoke. "In some weird glass box."

Megatron hummed sympathetically, stroking Starscream's smooth armour. His servo wandered up, over perfectly straight, reattached wings, finding them a bit of a novelty to touch now. Ratchet had done a commendable job on them. His digits dragged along an edge. Starscream flinched against him.

"Ticklish?" He teased, peering down at the top of Starscream's dark helm. He did it again, and Starscream wriggled against him.

"No." The helm tipped upwards and dark optics glared at him, " _That's_ not the sort of place a gentlemech would fondle without asking permission first."

Megatron's lifted his servo immediately, apology on the tip of his glossa, but Starscream reached back, caught his wrist, laid it back down again.

"You have permission." He whispered, and Megatron caught a glimpse of flushed cheeks before Starscream turned his face into his neck again.

He stroked up the wing again, touch gentle, worshipful now. Starscream's engines purred.

"The Autobots will be watching." Megatron reminded him.

Starscream didn't seem to care, relishing his touch on his wings. He nodded and shifted, the warm swell of his cockpit rubbing against Megatron's side. Megatron wanted more than anything to touch him all over, learn what else he would be given permission to do.

"When we leave here." Starscream began, sounding firm with conviction, "And return to base, do you know what the first thing I'm going to do is?"

Megatron could well imagine. "Hog the wash-racks for hours on end?"

"Very amusing." Starscream's helm lifted from his neck, a naughty little spark to his gaze. "But I was thinking you could accompany me to my rooms."

Megatron's core temperature picked up a few degrees. Having Starscream lying on top of him like this was suddenly very inconvenient. "Oh?" He said stupidly.

Starscream nodded, a digit dragging down the side of Megatron's helm. "There's something I want to show you."

Megatron swallowed thickly, mouth watering. "There're a few things I'd like to show you too."

This seemed to make Starscream supremely happy. He leant down to kiss him again, soft, slow kisses. Megatron opened his mouth and Starscream deepened it, letting his glossa slip through his lips and roll over Megatron's own tongue. Their frames rocked languidly, following the rhythm of their kiss.

Then Starscream lifted a leg and let it slip between Megatron's, his smooth armoured thigh nudging up against his codpiece. Megatron grabbed a handful of his aft in encouragement, rolling his hips forward to build friction, moaning thickly into the kiss.

He wasn't sure he could hold back any longer.

His self control never had the chance to prove itself. The door clanged and Starscream tore himself away to glare angrily at the interruption.

"That wasn't ten minutes!" He argued, his claws digging into Megatron's armour as Ironhide and his backup approached with speed.

"That was before ya started gettin' all hot n' heavy!" Ironhide barked angrily.

"We were not!" Starscream argued, despite how obvious it had been that they were. 

Megatron watched dazedly as Starscream was hauled bodily off him, arms and legs waving and kicking, purple in the face with yelling. He left scratches across Megatron's chest where he'd been prised off.

Megatron watched him go, spitting and swearing, raising Hell.

And he ached to have him back. If only to hold him a moment more.

Ironhide returned shortly afterwards, slipping him back into his restraints. Megatron was still too drug dazed to be effectively uncooperative, but he tried.

Ironhide worked mostly in silence- before the temptation appeared too much and he peered down at Megatron's face. He snorted with disgust at whatever he found there.

"Never thought I'd be sayin' this to you, but yer can do better than ' _im_."

Megatron smirked pridefully, "Why on Cybertron would I want too?"

 

* * *

 

The Autobot's tossed Starscream back into his awful little glass box then left him to go and join in their holiday celebrations. Starscream swore if he ever caught a Decepticon celebrating this 'Christmas' nonsense in the future he was going to ram a live turkey up their exhaust.

It had long since turned dark outside, and the lights in the hanger had been left on low. Alone in his glass box, Starscream could only be thankful that it was heated and windowless. It felt a little claustrophobic, but he couldn't see the snow falling, and it allowed him to delude himself into thinking it was dry and warm out there, and not... the alternatives.

He listened to the sounds of the party in one of the distant buildings, and wondered how many Autobots were here. It sounded like a few. He'd personally seen around fifteen? Maybe more.

He hadn't seen Skyfire.

He dropped down to the berth slab they'd left him and scowled. Good. He didn't want to see Skyfire. Primus forbid that traitor try to talk to him.

He wondered if the big idiot still collected rocks, and bored his comrades to death with his excitable reasoning as to why igneous was his favourite. Starscream snorted, wondering how he could ever have tolerated someone so banal, and boring, and soft-sparked, and _kind_ , and-

"Urgh!" He sat up with a furious noise, but there was nothing to throw in here. He kicked the wall, but the protective field prevented him from making real contact.

Stupid fragging Skyfire.

And stupid fragging Megatron for making him care about him too.

This was why it was a bad idea to let himself grow emotionally attached. There was no point in trusting people, when all they did was die and disappear.

If Megatron tried to die or disappear he'd _kill_ him...

"You'd better not disappear." Starscream told the floor in absence of being able to threaten Megatron to his face.

He dropped back to the berth, wracking his processor for something to distract himself with. Something good. Pleasant.

He closed his optics and imagined the warmth of Megatron frame beside him, large and hard and rumbling with the power of his engine. He recalled the touches to his wings, clumsy digits doing their best to caress the delicate components, and he smiled in stupid fondness at Megatron's naivety.

He'd soon teach him how a mech _should_ touch wings.

He rolled into his front and pressed his hot cheek to the cool metal slab, trying to bring his core temperature down. He was a little _too_ distracted now, thinking about Megatron's hot breath on the back of his neck, the strength of his arms around him.

How thick and heavy his spike had felt in his palm that night in the garage-

"Slag." Starscream hissed, flipping onto his back again and opening his legs. His panel opened with a click and he touched himself furiously, angry and aroused and angry at his arousal. He pictured Megatron's helm between his thighs, optics staring up at him adoringly as he licked over his node, as his glossa slipped inside him.

Starscream pushed his digits into himself roughly, imagining Megatron fragging him next, mercilessly fast and hard and powerful. He'd pull on his wings and bite his neck and it'd be perfect.

Overload came over him in waves at the thought of Megatron finishing inside him, or on him, or over his wings, warm thick fluid dripping off the glossy armour. He whined, mouth open, thighs clenched tightly around his wrist. It was good but it lacked the deep ache of a rough face, it lacked the filthy delight of being marked...

"Idiot," Starscream muttered, letting his thighs fall apart and shaking the dampness from his servo. He thought about Megatron's stupid face but that only inspired another wave of arousal.

He mustered his self control and snapped his panel shut. Later.

He rolled onto his side and let his mind wander again- still about Megatron, but less wanton and carnal this time. The sort of things that soothed his spark and eased him into a more relaxing frame of mind.

Like Megatron's vacant confusion in the mornings when he'd just woken up, and his chainsaw-like snoring at night that scared all the wildlife away. He thought about how his curiosity had him collecting pinecones and trying to pet cows. A smile spread across his face, his spark swelling with emotion.

As awful and painful as these past weeks had been, the ordeal had been bearable, because Megatron had been with him every moment of it.

He didn't want to consider that perhaps he'd gotten a little... attached.

A sensible chunk of his processor wanted to point out that he was rather far beyond just 'attached' now anyway, what with it repeatedly jabbing at him with that dreaded 'L' word.

There was a clank outside. It sounded like the lock on the hanger door being jangled. Starscream rolled his optics and sat up, wondering what they wanted now.

The door didn't open. Starscream frowned, confused, listening to nothing but silence.

Whoever it was must have changed their mind. He was about to lie back again.

When there was an almighty crash and the hanger door flew right off it's hinges and banged to the floor some distance away. Starscream jumped, almost falling right off the berth with a squawk.

The dust began to clear and in the dark doorway, snow shimmering on his broad shoulders, Soundwave stood tall.

"Soundwave; superior."

For the first time ever, Starscream was inclined to agree.

 

 


	13. Chapter 13

The past few weeks had not been easy for Soundwave.

And it had all started with that disastrous battle in Boston, when some idiot had thrown a thermal grenade.

It hit an apartment, the explosion damaging the structural integrity of the building. Soundwave had barely the time to snatch up his cassettes and rush them out of the harms way before it started coming down, raining glass and stone and steel.

He'd turned back in time to see the bulk of all forty stories collapse on his commander.

It was still coming down, and the Decepticons were already scattering. Megatron's sudden absence from the comms had them fleeing in panic. Every mech for himself. Outnumbered, Soundwave had no choice but to retreat with the rest of the faction lest he meet the same fate as Megatron.

It had been a long and silent flight back to base.

It wasn't until some hours later, when Skywarp voiced the absence of his trine-leader that Soundwave realised Megatron wasn't the only one they'd left behind. His attempts at then organising a search and possible rescue with the seekers were thwarted when Starscream's noted absence inspired infighting amongst them.

Skywarp was quickly usurped from of his rightful place as acting air commander by Ramjet and his trine. Soundwave was aware of his duty to prevent this exact sort of situation from arising, but his own command status quickly went the same way as Skywarp's.

Megatron's comm was off, and by popular vote, it meant he wasn't coming back.

Motormaster took control.

Soundwave thought it prudent to get out whilst he still had the freedom to.

He knew without a doubt that Megatron still functioned, and possibly, Starscream did too. It was simply a matter of recovering him and bringing him back to his faction. Megatron would be more than capable of reinstating himself as the rightful leader, and... If not him, Starscream would.

It was why the command chain had always sat as it did. Should anything happen to Megatron, Starscream was ruthless enough to snatch up the power before a vacuum could form.

With both of them absent, things had gone as predicted; chaos reigned.

For the sake of his faction, his cause, his future, Soundwave wasn't giving up. He was bringing one of them back with him, or he wasn't coming back at all.

 

* * *

 

The Autobot's were celebrating their human holiday as best they could separated from the rest of their ilk. Few had the sense and self discipline to remain sober, which meant this would be easier than anticipated.

For Soundwave, hours of biding his time and waiting for the _exact_ right moment were thwarted when he kicked in the door to the secured hanger and found not Megatron, but _Starscream_ staring at him in shock.

His mood swung low again when his gaze met the seeker's. "You are not Lord Megatron."

Starscream seemed to get over his shock enough to glare. " _Obviously_. Get me out of here! Quick!"

Soundwave reassessed. Had it been Starscream he had been tracking these last weeks? Was Megatron truly gone? If so, was he prepared to lay his loyalty at the pedes of the second in command now?

"Hurry up!" Starscream snarled, servos pressed against the glass. "Before the Autobots hear. We need to get Megatron."

Soundwave's mood completed it's three hundred and sixty degree trip and shot right up again.

"Megatron." Soundwave crossed the hanger, assessing the glass box Starscream was trapped in. It looked advanced. Field reinforced. "He functions?"

"Barely." Starscream muttered. Soundwave gave him a stern look and he scoffed. " _Yes_ , he functions. He's recovering from injuries, which is why we need to be _quick_! Let me out first, and I'll show you."

"Understood " Soundwave said simply, and withdrew a energy field disruptor from his subspace and stuck it to the glass of the box. Starscream pulled a face.

"That won't work." He snipped, folding his arms condescendingly. "The glass is reinforced. It's some sort of super material."

"Incorrect," Soundwave stood back and gestured for Starscream to do the same. "The material is standard, but protected by an energy shield."

Starscream opened his mouth to argue but Soundwave flicked the switch. With a whir and then loud pop, the electric field overloaded. Starscream jumped back with a screech when it briefly flared, before going out.

Soundwave activated his weapon next and pointed it at the glass.

He fired. Starscream screeched again.

As predicted, the glass shattered and rained down on Starscream. The seeker hissed and flailed. "Urgh! _Soundwave_! It's getting between my armour!"

"Where is Megatron?" Soundwave demanded, reaching forward and seizing Starscream by the shoulder vent in case he tried to flee and save himself.

Starscream slapped him off angrily, "He's inside, idiot! Get off of me, you're wasting time. Do you want to rescue him or not?"

If he was lying he was doing a convincing job of it, and Soundwave had always seen through his facades before. Reluctantly, he decided to trust him, and let go. Starscream threw him one last look of childish disgust before taking off out the hanger, running through the snow. Towards the main building.

Soundwave followed, wondering at Starscream's sudden eagerness in aiding their commander.

A great many things seemed to have changed in these last few weeks.

 

* * *

 

  
Megatron was dozing. As a captive, he usually wouldn't, but he didn't have much choice presently.

He was fuzzy, and it was probably the effect of the extortionate amount of sedatives that deranged medic had topped him off with. It was easy to let the drowsiness catch up with him.

And harder to wake quickly when he felt someone fiddling with his restraints.

"Hnng?" He cracked an optic open, wanting to lift his helm.

"See, told you he wasn't dead." Starscream said peevishly.

A moment later his dark face appeared above Megatron, smouldering optics curved with his devious smirk. Megatron found himself smiling back fondly, wondering if he was still dreaming. His right arm was no longer held down with restraints so he raised it, brushed Starscream's silky smooth cheek. He certainly felt real.

Starscream caught his servo and brought it to his mouth, kissing the backs of his fingers briefly, indulgently. "They've sedated him again. Got anything to bring him around?"

It took Megatron a while to realise it wasn't _him_ Starscream was speaking to, but a third party. Dark blue armour and a red visor. Like Soundwave.

"Soundwave?" He questioned.

He was ignored.

"Negative." Soundwave answered Starscream. He was in the middle of removing the restraints from Megatron's uninjured leg.

"We're going to have to carry him then." Starscream hissed. He sounded angry, but when his attention came back to Megatron his optics were soft and kind. Somewhere deep within Megatron's drug addled processor he knew Starscream was coddling him, but that was a problem for future Megatron to sulk over.

The last of his restraints were undone and for some reason Starscream was insistent on him sitting up. Megatron was tired and his limbs felt heavy and he'd rather sleep, but Starscream was asking him to get up, so he tried where he normally wouldn't have- even though his helm felt ten times it's normal size, even though he couldn't for the life of him figure out what was going on.

"Soundwave is here." He said, because he was still fumbling through his surprise at that.

"Yes," Starscream muttered, carefully releasing his injured leg from it's sling and then grabbing his hips and swivelling him so his legs hung off the berth. "Soundwave _is_ here. _Finally_."

Soundwave's visor darkened at Starscream, something it did when he was annoyed. "I was as efficient as I could be."

"If you'd been a little more _efficient_ and found us yesterday we wouldn't be in this predicament."

Megatron groaned loudly, wondering why he couldn't have been dreaming about more pleasant things than his two lieutenants arguing.

"Alright hurry up." Starscream muttered, slinging one of his arms over his shoulder. "Just help me lift him."

"Negative." Soundwave brushed Starscream aside and stooped, and the next thing Megatron knew he was lifted off the berth and upside-down, staring at the floor, draped over Soundwave's shoulders easily.

It was rather disorienting. He began to struggle.

"Lord Megatron; desist." Soundwave ordered, adjusting him securely.

Upside-down next to him, Starscream sounded like he was asphyxiating himself. His servos covered his face and his wings were shaking. Megatron couldn't work out if he was crying or laughing.

Then Starscream snorted rather loudly and it was obvious that he was actually laughing so hard it was _making_ him cry.

"Desist." Soundwave sounded indignant.

"I can't help it," Starscream wheezed, pointing, "He looks so _confused_!"

Megatron knew he would be annoyed about this later, when he wasn't so high on Ratchet's cocktail of drugs.

 

* * *

 

Even when he was carrying Megatron's dead weight on his back, Soundwave found dodging the notice of Autobots easier than expected. Starscream was uncharacteristically helpful, stepping out ahead, ensuring the coast was clear- at his own risk, since he was as unarmed as a solider could be.

Megatron was stirring against his shoulder, growing less floppy and more self aware, but he wasn't making a nuisance of himself. Soundwave was thankful. He wouldn't be able to both wrangle his commander and fight back Autobots.

Guards were at a minimum, humans and Autobots both. They were nearly out of the building, but before they could reach the relative freedom of the outside, Starscream stopped him with a servo, optics narrowed. "Humans." He muttered.

"Armed?"

"Guns." Starscream smirked, and lifted his servos with his thumb and forefinger held a couple of inches apart. "Tiny ones. Might puncture a fuel line or two..."

"Is there an alternative route?" Soundwave adjusted Megatron across his shoulders. A low growl came from his commander.

Starscream tilted his helm to peer around at him, looking concerned. "No. But I can distract them."

Soundwave's visor dimmed. "If _you_ are the distraction, how will you get past them?"

Starscream waved him off flippantly, "Well, if you want to be technical about it, I won't be getting past them at all. There's something else I need to do-"

"Negative." Soundwave would have seized Starscream by the wing had he had the servos free to do so. "Self sacrifice; counterproductive."

Starscream actually looked offended at the suggestion. He scoffed, "Oh and I'm _really_ the 'self sacrificing' type, aren't I? There's something I need to do here yet, and it has nothing to do with you or your rescue, and I know you're not going to risk your precious leader's recapture for me."

"Affirmative." Soundwave agreed, finally relenting, if only for Megatron's sake. Though he did wonder if this was something that was going to affect him aversely later, or worse, Megatron.

"Proceed with distraction."

"Gladly." Starscream flicked his wings self-importantly, and stepped out into view of the humans.

 

* * *

 

The humans didn't seem to notice him immediately. He sighed loudly, then had to yell, "Hey!" to get their attention.

Heads snapped in his direction, then there were yells of 'halt' and 'surrender' and 'shoot!'. Starscream ran, in the opposite direction of where Soundwave and Megatron hid. He didn't look back, not wanting to draw attention to the doorway where they lingered.

Shots rang out and he felt them whistle by, spitting at the ground where he ran. His thrusters skidded through ice when he took a sharp turn, and then he felt a bullet ping off his shoulder armour. They weren't armour piercing, which was one small mercy.

He led them on a merry goose-chase, listening to them screech into their comms for backup. He knew he needed to wrap this up. It didn't matter how drunk Autobots were when they outnumbered him twenty-something to one. He decided to move things along a little and ignited his thrusters.

Foolish Autobots, giving him back his wings. It was like they wanted him to make fools of them. He flew high, until the gunshots began to dwindle, higher than they could see. The clouds were thick and dark, the wind strong.

It was so like that night long ago when he'd lost Skyfire, so like all the nightmares, but he wasn't scared this time. He dropped down, drifting with his thrusters off, as silent as he could, and landed on the other side of the Autobot's temporary base.

There were fresh tracks in the snow, pedes and treads, leading up to another hanger. This was the one place he hadn't been in yet, so this must be the place he was looking for.

With the sounds of panic and alarms muffled on the other side of the base, Starscream slid the hanger open and stepped inside.

At the other end of the high structure, the tallest mech he'd ever known turned to face him, his great wingspan almost enough to scrape the walls on either side. Blue optics widened, surprised.

"Starscream?" Skyfire blinked.

Starscream let the hanger slide shut behind him, "The one and only."

 

* * *

 

If one more damn medic tried to drug him he was going to rip their helm off- is what Megatron thought when his processor finally cleared enough to make sense of itself.

He was cold again, outside, his back against a tree and aft in the snow. There was a strong servo on his shoulder, steadying, and when he followed the limb up he discovered it was attached to Soundwave.

"...So it wasn't a dream." He realised, arching a charismatic brow at his oldest friend.

"Affirmative." Soundwave's usual monotone had softened with emotion. The servo squeezed briefly. "Apologises Lord Megatron, for taking so long."

Megatron waved his apology away, letting him off. Soundwave coming at all had been a vast improvement over what he'd feared- that they'd been left for dead. That no one would ever come. That he and Starscream would be-

He blinked, looking around. Speaking of the brat...

"Where is that little fool?"

Soundwave's visor dimmed. "Starscream; claimed to have unfinished business."

"What do you mean 'finished business'?" Megatron's mouth felt dry, and it wasn't because of the drugs. Soundwave stared at him wordlessly, masked face giving nothing away.

Megatron's confusion rapidly transmuted into anxiety. "Where is he?"

"Starscream suggested creating a distraction." Soundwave continued. "Against my advice he and I became separated."

"Separated?" Megatron's servos fisted in the snow, fuel pump picking up. "He's not still _there?!_ "

Soundwave's servo withdrew from his shoulder. He took a step back. "Affirmative."

Physical nausea rose up from Megatron's tanks and threatened to overwhelm him. The dazed aftermath of the drug wasn't helping. He shook his helm, trying to clear it and think sensibly. But only one thing mattered.

"Then we go back." He decided.

He went to stand but Soundwave pushed him back again. Megatron slapped him away, "Lord Megatron-"

"We're not leaving him-'" he snarled furiously, letting his denta show.

"The statistical probability of successfully-"

"I don't care about statistics!" Megatron thundered, clawing at the tree bark to get a good enough grip to haul himself upright. "I care about my second! I want him back!"

Soundwave was holding out his servos placatingly. Megatron slapped them away again, ignoring him, trying to stand. "Lord Megatron, your safety is priority-"

"My priority is Starscream." He argued back, finally standing upright, albeit wobbly. He grit his denta and glared at his third in command. "Get over here and help me walk."

Soundwave wasn't foolish enough to disobey him.

 


	14. Chapter 14

"I should turn you in."

It was far from a warm welcome, but it was no worse than what Starscream had been expecting.

"It's what any good Autobot would do."

Skyfire watched him passively. Starscream wondered what he was thinking, wondered if he saw any of what he deemed the 'old Starscream' in him. Wondered if he even wanted the shuttle to.

"Have you come to hurt me?" Skyfire asked, so large and gentle and ridiculous. Like anyone _could_ hurt him. Like anyone would want too...

"So that's what you think of me?" Starscream decided to feel angry, rather than sad. He glared, "Some violent monster-"

Skyfire gave his helm a little shake, "I've heard things, Starscream-"

"Oh you've _heard things_." Starscream scoffed in disgust. "I'm sure your new little Autobot friends love to tell you all about me, they know me so well-"

"-I didn't mean it like that."

Starscream wondered how Skyfire's voice could stay so gentle- they were supposed to be having a fragging argument. If it were Megatron he was arguing with he'd already be screaming the place down- big idiot can never keep his fragging temper.

But not Skyfire. Skyfire might not even have a temper.

"What are you here for?" Skyfire took a step closer and Starscream had to tilt his helm up to keep his gaze. "Aren't you supposed to be escaping? With Megatron?"

"There was something I needed to find first."

Skyfire's optics dimmed sadly. "Me?"

A smile curved Starscream's lips. An old ache wanted to rise up and squeeze his spark, wring it out. He felt the sadness, but he didn't let it overwhelm him.

"I looked for you," he said. "When you fell beneath the ice, did you know that?"

"I... I guess I assumed you would have-"

"For years." Starscream confirmed, tone clipped. "On this frozen little scraphole, alone. I looked and looked, and I thought you were dead and I still looked. I couldn't find you. I'm sorry I couldn't find you."

Skyfire somehow looked sadder, but he didn't look away. "I don't- I never blamed you for not finding me."

Starscream swallowed. It didn't change anything between them and it didn't change what had happened but- but maybe he'd needed to hear it.

"I'm sorry so much changed." Skyfire stumbled into the growing silence, trying to fill the pauses. "I'm sorry I wasn't there to protect you from, from all this. From what happened to you."

This time Starscream did smile, wide and genuine. He stepped to the side, around Skyfire.

"Oh, irony." He rolled his optics. "if you'd been there to witness the start of the war, old _friend_ , you'd know _I_ wasn't the one that needed protecting."

He reached the other end of the hanger, where the sealed crate he'd been eyeing sat. Skyfire took a step towards him. "Starscream, what are you-?"

Starscream flicked the latches up, stuck a servo in, and hauled Megatron's missing fusion cannon out with a grunt of exertion.

Skyfire's optics widened. He took several steps back as Starscream dusted the dirt from it's barrel and hefted it onto his shoulder.

"Starscream," Skyfire frowned.

"Get out of the way, Skyfire," Starscream aimed it at him, moving forward, "You're not what I'm looking for anymore."

Skyfire stumbled back and hit the side of the hanger, getting well out of the way. Starscream didn't look back as he passed. He left the hanger, and Skyfire, behind.

He could have sworn he'd glimpsed the beginnings of a smile on his old comrade's face, just as he took to the skies.

Maybe he _liked_ being held at cannon point- weirdo.

 

* * *

 

Soundwave hadn't gotten far with Megatron. Starscream flipped into a transformation sequence on his descent and landed in a crouch not far from where they were standing.

"Ta-da!" He declared, unsubspacing the cannon and lifting it so they could revel in the glory of his competency.

He was not showered in praise, as he had expected to be. The smile slipped off his face at the looks he was being given.

"What?"

Megatron, who looked like he was only upright because Soundwave was keeping him that way, shoved his third away to somehow stand on his own, rising to his full intimidating height to bark a furious, " ** _Starscream!_** "

Starscream almost dropped the cannon out of shock. He hugged it to his chest, optics bright and mouth parted with panic. "What? I stole it back _for_ you?!"

Megatron was limping towards him, face contorted with anger, olfactory flaring and jaw ticking. Starscream almost turned the cannon on him, taking a few self-preserving steps back.

The cannon was tugged out of his servos and tossed carelessly aside. Starscream watched it thunk heavily to the ground, half disappearing beneath the snow, discarded like a piece of trash.

His mouth opened, "That wasn't _easy_ to find-"

His peevish protests were interrupted when he was yanked into a crushing embrace. The tip of his olfactory was squashed against the hard armour of Megatron's chest, his arms pinned to his sides. He wriggled, wondering if this was some sort of attack. But there was no crushing pain. Just Megatron, warm and solid, smelling like gun oil and iron. His chin dropping to the top of Starscream's helm.

"Foolish seeker." He murmured, breath puffing against the top of Starscream's helm. The grip slackened and he was seized by the shoulders and held at arms length.

Megatron looked into his face intensely. "What the pit were you thinking? Risking your freedom for a weapon?"

Starscream wondered if he'd gone crazy. "Your _fusion cannon_!" He pointed, "And I wasn't risking anything," he thumbed back to his wings. "Repaired. Remember? Primus, you've lost your edge."

Megatron rubbed a servo down his face, "Do you have any idea what I- how I-"

He appeared to be struggling with what he wanted to say, so in the end he gave up, flashed Starscream another exasperated look, then shook his helm. "You swore you wouldn't leave me behind."

"I didn't." Starscream argued.

"You were perfectly happy for me to leave you." Megatron growled, shifting his servos from shoulders to cup Starscream's jaw, tilting his face up. Thumbs brushed his cheeks. "I told you..."

His voice dropped, low and quiet, so Soundwave behind him wouldn't be able to hear.

"...I told you what you mean to me." He said. Starscream tried to look away but Megatron held him in place. "I won't let us be parted."

Starscream gave him a nod, just to put an end to the display Soundwave was witnessing. He moved out of Megatron's arms and went to collection the fusion cannon. "I should shoot you with this, you ungrateful tin can."

Megatron hummed in agreement, and with a wordless beckon, called Soundwave back to his side. "Keep hold of it for me. The journey back shouldn't be as long."

Starscream understood why that was so when Megatron nodded to Soundwave, and with a quick series of beeps from his comm link, the atmosphere sparked with purple electricity.

Skywarp appeared in their midst.

The black seeker folded his arms and looked them both up and down, tutting.

"Not looking too good, Screamer, even for a dead mech," He extended his servos for them to take, winking at Megatron. "Handsome as always, Lord Megatron."

"Suck up," Starscream snarled, chest bursting with sudden jealously. He took Skywarp's servo in a grip too harsh, hoping to break his trine mate's digits. Soundwave took Skywarp's other hand.

Megatron limped around and slipped his servo into Starscream's, lacing their digits together. Starscream's spark soared and the jealousy melted into nothingness.

"Take us home, Skywarp." Megatron ordered wearily.

With a crack of light and surge of gravity, they left the snow and the cold behind.

Starscream had never thought the stench of rust and seawater could smell so much like home.

 

* * *

 

There was a lot to do, and all of it rather quickly.

Within moments of their arrival Starscream slipped his servo from Megatron's, and still wielding the recovered fusion cannon, stuck it's purple glowing barrel in Motormaster's face.

Motormaster's delusions of grandeur didn't last long after that. Skywarp warped off with the intention of spreading the good news that Megatron was alive, and the less good news, that so was Starscream, and before much else could happen Soundwave reported that Ramjet had heard about a fusion-cannon-wielding-Starscream and very eagerly stepped down from his position as air commander.

Which meant the most pressing problems had already been taken care of, and all within just minutes of their return.

Starscream was nothing if not efficient.

Megatron had no idea why he hadn't appreciated this sort of thing about Starscream before, but the pride at watching the second yell and threaten and kick everything back into shape as he stalked through the base, leading Megatron's own ambling frame to the medbay, was rolling through him better than any sedatives the Autobot medics had given him.

He was left with Hook, and Starscream touched his wrist to say he was going to 'concave some Cone-heads' and would be back soon. It wasn't until he left, strutting off, wings and helm high, that Megatron realised the apparent spark-attack he was having might have been an overwhelming rush of emotion, actually.

"Your pulse is high." Hook read.

Megatron stared at the door after Starscream, finding it very difficult not to sigh wistfully like a love-sick adolescent. "Yes, I'm sure it is."

 

* * *

 

When he returned to his quarters- which was a greater distance from the medbay than he had ever realised- there was a surprise waiting in his berth.

Or two surprises, if Megatron counted the fusion cannon Starscream was still lugging around for him.

Starscream spread his arms out, sighing dreamily. "I was going to wait for you." He claimed, and patted the soft covers in invitation. "But the temptation was too great."

Megatron hummed an agreement, limping steadily the rest of the way. Starscream pulled the covers back for him, and the sheets and padding were warm from the heat of his frame. He slipped in, optics shuttering at the plushness of the padding, the silky slide of the insulation sheets on his back.

His pillow smelt of Starscream. Another plus.

"Why aren't you in your own berth?" He asked, though he _knew_ why and wasn't at all upset about the reason. Starscream's pede found his shin under the sheets. Toe pedes dragged up his leg playfully.

Starscream shrugged lazily, his optics half shuttered and dim. "I've grown too used to your snoring. I can't seem to relax without it shaking the walls."

Megatron hummed, reaching for the fusion cannon that lay between them. However this evening progressed it probably wasn't wise to have weaponry in the berth. He trusted Starscream, mostly, but sometimes it just wasn't worth tempting fate.

"I forgot to thank you," he said, sitting up and propping the fusion cannon up against the bulkhead on his side of the berth. "For recovering this."

Starscream was nestled so deeply within the sheets only the top of his helm was visible. He gave a little nod, frame shifting under the covers.

Megatron searched his own subspace, thinking he should return the favour. He held his servo out, and Starscream rose eagerly, covers slipping down his glossy shoulders.

"A gift?" He smiled, "How charming..."

The smile fell off his face when Megatron opened his servo to reveal a pinecone, the one he'd found next to the bridge during their trek. Starscream's lips pressed into a thin line.

"You don't like your 'Christmas present'?" Megatron teased.

He thought Starscream was going to hit him, or at least snatch the pinecone away and crush it. Megatron closed his servo around it protectively just in case, and just in time too. With a great rush of fabric Starscream threw off the covers off and came at him.

Megatron's back and helm thunked back against the bulkhead as he was tackled, Starscream's claws trying to reach for him and- Primus only knew what he wanted to do. He laughed, slipping down onto his back as Starscream abused his upper-hand at both being on top and uninjured to wrestle him down.

"I'll give you Christmas!" He snarled.

Megatron huffed in amusement and used his grip on Starscream's wrists to tug him the rest of the way down. Starscream made a noise of surprise when their chests clunked together, and Megatron angled his helm up to kiss him.

Starscream froze, then began to relax, yielding gradually to the roll of Megatron's glossa over his lips. Megatron drew back briefly, releasing a wrist to nudge at Starscream's soft dark cheek. He kissed it, the plating warm and silky against his mouth.

"You're not funny." Starscream muttered. "Or clever."

"I know." Megatron hummed his agreement, running his servos down Starscream's trim waist to let them rest on wide, red hips. "A _smart_ mech would know better than to fall in love with you."

Starscream made a noise like he was suffocating, optics as wide as flying saucers. "You- don't say stupid things!" He blurted in a rush, his fingers slipping into the seams of Megatron's collar and playing with the wires beneath nervously. "You're still high. All those drugs..."

Megatron shook his helm, dragging his servos up Starscream's frame again to catch the edges of animated wings. He gave them a squeeze, and all the colour that had left Starscream's face when he'd admitted his feelings came back in a rush to his cheeks.

"Oh! Those are-!"

"Private," Megatron growled, "I know."

He still had one good leg, and he used it to help roll them, knocking Starscream off his front and onto his back on the berth. Megatron shifted to fall between his thighs, exactly where he wanted to be- where he'd _been_ wanting to be for some time now. But Starscream pressed his thighs together coyly, a smirk playing across his mouth.

Megatron gave his rump a light slap, enticing a gasp from him- parts both delighted and scandalised.

"Don't be rough."

"Don't tease," Megatron reproached, taking his knees and pulling then apart, making room for himself to slide between them. Starscream welcomed him this time, making a cradle out of his thighs, taking Megatron's weight and rolling his hips up receptively.

Megatron heard the click of an opening panel. He didn't have to look to know where it had come from when Starscream ground upwards and he felt warm damp heat spread across his codpiece. Fingers played with the edges of his helmet, then pulled him down.

He let Starscream kiss him, savouring him and his taste and the soft little mewling noises he made when Megatron closed his lips around his glossa and sucked. He let his spike emerge, let it's thickening shaft drag against Starscream swollen little anterior node. Starscream shuddered, breath hitching, " _Megatron_."

Megatron slipped his arms under Starscream, holding him briefly in a gentle embrace, just letting them lie together with their arrays exposed and brushing. Starscream began to squirm, cheeks purple and optics bright, so Megatron slipped his servos higher and gripped too rough handfuls of wing.

Starscream arched his back and Megatron slipped inside him.

Starscream's moan was guttural, his optics flashing in surprise. Megatron kissed his neck, hips hitching back only to press in more. Starscream's digits pressed dents into his lower back as he continued, and Megatron bit him with a growl, pinching and pulling on his wings. He used them to haul Starscream back into his thrusts, and Starscream cried out, thrusters beginning to lift off the padding, rising higher with every creak of the berth frame.

Megatron released his wings and hiked one of his long legs up over his shoulder, pushing the other to the side, stretching Starscream into a gymnastic level contortion. The seeker was laid bare before him, mouth open and panting, coolant gathering in the corners of his optics with how overwhelmed he was by it all.

It had been worth waiting to take him, Megatron decided. The perfectness of this moment wasn't tarnished by having to worry about interruptions from Autobots or keeping quiet lest humans hear.

He listened to Starscream's cries with relish, purring in deep satisfaction when Starscream whimpered a desperate "Megatron!" and stiffened with an overload.

Megatron slowed to savour the ripple and twitch of Starscream's overloading frame before reassuming his pace. Dropping down again with a leg still on his shoulder and folding Starscream near in half, curving his back so he could reach his lips and kiss him again. Sloppy. Desperate.

Starscream cupped and stroked his helm when he drew back, expression open and lustful, and Megatron bared his denta with a snarl, grinding into him. Deep as he could get. His leg aching with the exertion of it all but he didn't stop, not with Starscream being so soft and warm and pliant.

He overloaded into him, and Starscream made delighted, breathless noises. "Yes Megatron..." He was gasping, thighs twitching in time to the pulses of Megatron's spike. "Megatron, _yes~_ " 

The ferocity of the moment began to fade, and a Megatron let his helm fall again to Starscream's neck. He inhaled his sweet scent, moaned into it. Starscream rubbed his back and kissed the side of his helm, movements weak and slow.

"I love you." Megatron said again, just in case Starscream hadn't gotten the hint earlier.

"Shut up and go to sleep," Starscream grumbled beneath him, but his touch was still gentle and loving.

Megatron burrowed down and offlined his optics, tangled together and musky with the scent of their overloads. He couldn't be bothered to move, and neither, it seemed, could Starscream. He heard his vents even out with sleep first.

Megatron saw no reason not to join him.

No one was woken by nightmares.

 

* * *

 

Earth circled it's sun quickly. It felt like hardly any time had passed at all before Starscream once again found himself standing in next winters snow, arms closed around himself to ward off the chill.

"This is stupid." He called.

Between the trees Megatron was crouched, digits digging through the snow to get to the earth beneath. "It's tradition."

"It's only tradition if we do it more than once." Starscream argued back, glaring at the flakes floating down and melting on his wings. He should just leave the big idiot behind.

"Aha!" Megatron declared, standing with something in his servo.

Starscream shifted his footing, trying to keep himself warm. "Okay, fine. Good. You found one. Let's go."

Megatron brushed a tree branch aside as he made his way back, knocking snow loose. He moved it gently so not to break it, "You don't want to see?"

"It's a pinecone." Starscream grumbled, "Once you've see one, you've seen them all."

Megatron held it up anyway. It was pinched between his digits, a tiny brown bit of organic muck.

"Yes it's lovely." He praised anyway, because as stupid as this was he knew it meant a lot to Megatron, for some bizarre reason. Nostalgic, sentimental old moron.

"Figured out what they do yet?" Megatron asked, tossing it in the air and catching it again.

Starscream suddenly resented humouring him over this. "Like I'd waste my time looking it up. I have better things to do."

Megatron slipped an arm over his shoulders, tugging him against his side. Starscream welcomed it. He was warm. "Indeed."

He wriggled his brow suggestively. Starscream sighed but wrapped his own arm around his thick waist, walking with him. "I'm cold." He said, which was his way of saying 'I want to go home and if you don't bow to my whims this very second you'll regret it for the rest of your existence'.

After a year of being so intimately familiar with each other, Megatron understood the hidden meaning well. He nodded, slipping the pinecone into his subspace, ready to leave.

"You know, you didn't have to come."

Starscream shrugged. He didn't. But... the snow didn't seem so bad when Megatron was with him, and just knowing that he could be out here and not feel... incapacitated by his own crippling dread, like he once had, inspired a great sense of achievement in him.

Didn't mean he was going to go prancing about in it anytime soon though.

"Let's go then, before Skywarp gets to the command centre with the mistletoe."

Megatron smiled warmly, "Would that be such a great shame?"

Starscream thought about stealing kisses behind the monitor banks with him, and couldn't prevent his own smile.

"You don't need to use mistletoe as an excuse to kiss me."

Megatron tugged him close, leaning down so their noses brushed. "I know."

Starscream laughed, and Megatron kissed him, and like their very first time it was cold and in the snow.

But no less perfect for it.

 


End file.
